Robbery, killing no shock to residents

BACLIFF — Neighbors of a game room did not appear to be all that shocked a man died during a robbery there Friday. Saddened for sure, but not at all shocked.

Ronald Martin, 57, was one of eight customers in the Mardi Gras Game Room in the 9500 block of 20th Street in Bacliff about 2:30 p.m. on the Fourth of July when three men pulled guns, took an undetermined amount of cash from the game room and took customers’ cash and mobile phones.

While investigators are not yet sure why Martin was killed, it appears the Texas City resident may have resisted the robbers and was shot.

Martin died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the leg, the Galveston County medical examiner said.

The bullet severed an artery in the leg, and Martin died because of massive blood loss.

“It’s sad what happened there,” said Zach Taha, owner of E-Z Inspections, an auto repair shop next door to the game room.

Taha said he opened his business about the same time that Mardi Gras opened its doors a little more than a year ago. Until Friday’s shooting, Taha said there had been little worries about the neighboring business.

“No problems,” he said. “But that is a gambling place, so (robbers) know there is a lot of cash in there.”

While the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said there are no previous reports of problems at the Mardi Gras Game Room, others in the community insisted the business is a den of illegal activity.

“We’ve been concerned for several years about it. I just don’t feel safe,” said area resident Stephen Patrick Henry.

Sharlene and Morris Dominy live in the house that sits behind the game room. For the most part, the two haven’t had any problems with the game room.

“We pretty much stay to ourselves, but outside of the cussing and yelling we hear late at night, no problems from there,” said Sharlene Dominy, who has lived in the four-bedroom house that butts the back parking lot of the game room for 37 years.

Then again, she admits that there is a “see no evil, hear no evil” attitude in the community of Bacliff.

“We tend to turn a deaf ear to things that are going on,” she said of the community’s general attitude. “We put blinders on.”

The Dominys describe many areas in the unincorporated parts of the county just north of Texas City as a cesspool full of “riff raff.” The community has long been a place where people move to be “left alone” and not bothered by government agencies or law enforcement.

But that attitude has come with a price.

“There are gangs that run drugs, they mark their territory,” said Morris Dominy, a 50-year resident of the Bacliff area. “Drugs and alcohol run rampant.”

Sharlene Dominy said it is not unusual to drive down the streets of Bacliff and have the odor of marijuana waft over you.

“Ninety-nine percent of this community is against the cops,” Sharlene Dominy said. They think they are corrupt, “We don’t know how to stop it. Honest to God.”

Mike Maples has a pretty good idea of how to curb the crime in the area — increased law enforcement.

“I don’t know what is with the police. They are either ignorant, taking payoffs or just turning a blind eye,” said Maples, who owns M&M Furniture, which is less than a block from the Mardi Gras Game Room near the intersection of FM 646 and state Highway 146. “I know there is gambling going on in there; they got to know what’s going on.”

It’s not that law enforcement doesn’t know that game rooms like Mardi Gras are likely flaunting the state’s gambling laws, said Galveston County Sheriff Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo. There’s a big difference between knowing about someone breaking the law and prosecuting them for it.

“It’s easier said than done; our hands are tied, too,” Tuttoilmondo said. “It’s a matter of if we can make a criminal case.”

The sheriff’s office spokesman said shutting down illegal gaming joints is a priority — to a point.

“It is, to the extent that it has to be weighed against other priorities,” he said. “(Gambling) investigations are time consuming, and storing machines as evidence is costly.”

Maples said no matter what it takes, game rooms across the county need to be shuttered.

“It takes money out of this community from people who can less afford to (gamble),” Maples said.

He said in addition to the fact that such places pay little, if no taxes and attract a “bad element,” his own business has been negatively affected by the game room.

“I have customers who owe me money (for furniture payments) who go in there and gamble it away and then they call me up and say they can’t make this month’s payment but will make it up next month,” Maples said.

Sharlene Dominy said she has faith things may take a turn for the better in Bacliff.

“There is an undercurrent of people coming up and wanting things to change,” she said. “There’s enough people who are moral and ethical, and with prayer this town can be helped out.”

Still, she acknowledges, “Bacliff is going to be Bacliff.”

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Crack the case

Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said investigators are looking for about eight people who were customers in the Mardi Gras Game Room when shots rang out, leaving a Texas City man dead. Tuttoilmondo said there were at least 16 people in the game room — including the three robbers — when the fatal robbery happened. While investigators interviewed several witnesses, the sheriff’s office wants to talk to those eight customers who took off before deputies arrived.

“They are not in any sort of trouble; we just want to talk to them and find out what happened” Tuttoilmondo said.

People who were customers at the Mardi Gras Game Room at the time of the crime are urged to call the sheriff’s office at 409-766-2222 or 866-248-8477.