Harris County Constable exonerates horrific 2014 mass murder

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – “This is the first time the story has ever been told to a media outlet,” said District 4 Constable Mark Herman.

What caused Herman to relive that hot July day a decade ago when Ronald Haskell became one of Houston's most despicable mass murderers? A recent breaking bond report on a motion to expel 351st Criminal Court Judge Nata Cornelio from Haskell's case.

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According to court documents, he had the death row inmate transferred from Huntsville to the Harris County Jail for three weeks last summer for an MRI.

Apparently only Haskell, his appellate attorney and Herman knew about it.

“Randy, your story has awakened the demons that live on in my memory of that terrible day,” Herman said.

Herman was deputy chief in 2014.

“When the call came in, I was probably about a minute away from that location and another deputy and I pulled up at the same time,” he said.

This call came from Cassidy Stay. Her uncle Ron Haskell showed up dressed like a delivery man.

She watched as he shot and killed her 34-year-old mother Katie, her 39-year-old father Stephen and her four siblings, 13-year-old Bryan, 9-year-old Emily, 7-year-old Rebeca and 4-year-old Zach. Cassidy, then 15, was also shot.

“Cassidy Stay was playing dead. When he left the house, she was able to get on the phone and call 911 at our office and basically get us on our way there,” Herman said. “I walked alongside the officers as the rescue workers were loading them. She informed us that her uncle did this. He drove a little red car and wanted to go to his grandparents’ house.”

As deputy chief, Herman was responsible for the dog group. He says the entire troop was with the Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department that day. He told them to go to Anvil Drive, where Cassidy told them her grandparents lived.

“Just look for a little red car and right about the time the police radio lit up we were looking for him. We started pursuing him,” Herman said.

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Haskell was arrested before he could continue his killing spree.

“That’s how close it was that his ex-wife, his children and their parents would suffer the same fate as the Stay family,” Herman said. “He said that was what he was going to do, Cassidy knew that. They spoke to him verbally when he actually killed the family. That was the only reason he came to the Spring area, to murder his wife and probably the children as well.”

Being so close to the crime scene, the officer says he has no doubt it was God's will.

“I have no doubt that God arranged it this way,” he said. “I wish God could have helped and saved the Stay family. But by making that call and playing dead, Cassidy is the real hero. She made it possible.”

Five years after watching her family die, Cassidy reached out to Haskell as he was sentenced to death.

“Do I think the punishment fits the crime? No, I hope that when you die, you get the punishment you deserve from God. Only God can help you now,” Cassidy Stay said on the witness stand in October 2019.

July 9, 2014, a day that will never leave Mark Herman alone.

“These demons live in my memory, you can never take that away from me,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of bad things in my life, this is probably the worst.”