A brother's crusade for justice / Man refuses to accept that slaying remains unsolved
Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: MON 04/14/2003
Section: A
Page: 13 Metfront
Edition: 3 STAR
A brother's crusade for justice / Man refuses to accept that slaying remains unsolved
By MIKE GLENN
Staff
Charlie Kato, 47, was gunned down at his northwest Houston apartment complex more than a month ago, but his younger brother refuses to let him become just another homicide statistic.
"I want to find the killer. This wasn't a crackhead killing a crackhead," Bill Kato, 41, said Sunday while standing vigil on the street in front of the Casa Verde apartments at Goodson and Airline.
Before and after work and on weekends, Kato passes out fliers about the still-unsolved case while wearing an advertising sandwich board across his chest offering reward money.
"This is the only thing I can do to ease my pain," the Porter resident said.
While some passers-by think he's a street vendor hawking wares, Kato said the reaction from the public has been positive. He passed out at least 300 fliers on Sunday.
"People are trying to give me money," he said. "I don't want money. I want justice."
Charlie Kato was shot in the chest about 6:30 a.m. March 5 while carrying a load of trash to a Dumpster at the apartment complex. Although fatally wounded, he made it back to the apartment he shared with their mother.
"He came back beating on the door and was covered in blood," Bill Kato said.
The victim, who was developmentally disabled, could only tell his mother that "a black man in a hood hurt me," Kato said.
He later died at Ben Taub General Hospital.
"They killed a kid, that's what they did," Kato said, tightly grasping a photograph of his brother.
Detectives told Kato they have some leads in the case but robbery might not have been a motive. His brother was carrying $42 in his wallet when he finally got to the apartment after the shooting.
Kato said his brother didn't smoke or drink and was devoted to his church, their mother and his job as a janitor at Aldine High School.
"He was just a good guy. He never had a cross word for anybody," he said. "He was always willing to help anybody, and he never asked for anything."
The victim's nephew, Jason Kato, recalled the baseball cards he used to pass out to the children in the family.
"He wouldn't hurt a flea. He was a real good guy," said Kato, 26. "It seems pointless. It's frustrating for all of us."
Bill Kato offered to find his older brother work out of the city and closer to his home in Montgomery County but was firmly turned down.
"He told me that he was an `Aldine Mustang' and he wasn't going to leave," he said. "He knew Aldine High School from one pipe to the other."
Sandra Hilliard has lived in the Casa Verde apartments for five years and remembered Charlie Kato from the time she also worked as a custodian for the Aldine school district.
"I used to see him all the time. He was a quiet guy - real quiet," Hilliard said. "It's really bad when somebody loses their life like that."
Hilliard offered her sympathies while picking up one of the fliers about the murder case.
"People do talk," she said, giving Kato a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. "If I hear anything, I'll make sure to tell about it."
Kato moved his mother to Porter after his brother's death. He has a lawsuit in the works against the apartment complex, alleging it failed to provide adequate protection for the tenants. There were on-site guards and gates that could only be opened with security cards when he moved his brother and mother there about eight years ago.
"There was security everywhere. I felt comfortable," he said. "They haven't had security there for a year and a half."
The Casa Verde office was closed Sunday, and apartment officials could not be reached for comment... This was 4-14 03... went through hell until Aug 5th 03......i got saved....... They never found the man who murdered Charlie
up till the first of 2010... I always preached if the caught him i could tell him i forgive him and pray for him.. well i got the call from cold case homicide.. at the first of the year... Hear soon i get to go to Huntsville and meet the man...
and pray for him...through GODS plan i was saved and put in the ministry.
Charlie is in heaven... and
Comment