Teen with Bullet in Head Takes Plea Deal

Joshua Adam Bush, 19, pleaded guilty Monday, Dec. 1 2008, to charges of criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. In return, other charges were dropped and he will be sentenced to two years in jail. With time served, he should be out shortly, his lawyer, Langston Adams, told the Beaumont Enterprise.

Bush gained national attention when prosecutors tried to have a bullet removed from his head to prove he was hit during a gun battle while attempting to rob a used car dealership. Bush had claimed that he was shot accidentally by a friend.

In a jury trial in August Bush was found not guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors maintained that Bush had been in a gunfight with the manager of the car lot, Allen Olive, and that was how he got the bullet in his head. Jurors returned a verdict of not guilty, though some indicated that they do not necessarily believe Bush was innocent. This was the most serious charge he faced.

By accepting the plea agreement - in which he pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and criminal mischief - charges of deadly conduct and two counts of engaging in organized criminal activity were dropped as part of the deal.

Jefferson County prosecutor Ramon Rodriguez said the deal was made because any subsequent trials would rely heavily on the testimony of gang members, which would not be reliable.

"We got a couple convictions, which did not force us to rely on the testimony of known gang members for the purpose of getting a conviction," he said.

Even though Bush took the plea bargain offered by prosecutors, he may yet gain financially from the case. Following his arrest law enforcement officers obtained a warrant to have the bullet removed from his head. He was taken to St. Christus Elizabeth Hospital where a doctor made an incision into his forehead, but was unable to remove the slug. His family has since sued the doctor.

Teen with Bullet in Head to go on Trial

Joshua Adam Bush, 19, a Groves teen with a bullet in his forehead will go to trial. The trial date has been set for Aug. 11. Bush had previously entered a guilty plea but changed his mind after learning that he was not properly informed of the maximum punishment he faced.

Bush had originally been charged with 6 felonies, stemming from an attempted robbery of a used car lot. He had agreed to plead guilty to two of the charges, deadly conduct and aggravated assault of a witness. If Bush had followed through with the plea agreement, prosecutors would have dismissed the remaining four felonies and Bush would have been sentenced to no more than 10 years in prison.

Criminal District Court Judge John Stevens allowed Bush to withdraw his guilty pleas:

"Generally, pleas of guilty are not allowed to be withdrawn because when the pleas are made, we go over them so slowly and deliberately," Stevens said to Bush in court Friday.

Instead of being told the aggravated assault charge carried a punishment range of up to life in prison, an error on Bush's indictment led Stevens to warn Bush when he pleaded guilty that the charge carried maximum punishment of 20 years.

"The thing is, you either lied to me before when you pleaded guilty or you are lying to me now, telling me you are not," the judge said. "However, the court must admonish you accurately for it to be a constitutionally valid plea."

The Bush case has drawn a lot of publicity because he has a bullet lodged in the fatty tissue of his forehead about 2 inches above his eyes. Bush claims that he was shot accidentally by his friend but the police have a much different story.

The police contend that Bush was involved with a robbery at Olive's Used Cars in Port Arthur on July 21, 2006. During the course of the robbery they say that Bush shot at the manager of the car lot, competitive pistol shooter Allen Olive who returned fire hitting Bush in the forehead with a 9mm slug. Olive, however, told Port Arthur police he could not identify the man with whom he exchanged gunfire.

Bush, claiming that he was innocent, explained that he originally took the plea because: "I'm innocent, but I want to go home. If I took the plea I would get home faster, and that would be better than getting almost a life sentence."

"I didn't shoot at nobody," he said. "They ain't got no gun. The man at the car lot said he can't even identify that it was me. This man, I don't even know how he looks. He don't know how I look."

Michael Mayfield, who has a child with one of Bush's sisters, came forward to take the blame for the bullet in Bush's head which he claims is a .32 caliber slug:

"It was me that shot him," Michael Mayfield said in an interview. "What the DA is saying about the car lot, I kind of laugh at that," Mayfield said. "Because that bullet didn't come from no car lot situation. Can't nobody be more sure than me."

At the time the police obtained search warrants from state 252nd District Court Judge Layne Walker to remove the bullet lodged in Bush's head against his wishes. They claimed that they need the bullet as evidence to prove that it came from Allen Olive's 32mm gun.

Bush was prepped for a forced surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital in Galveston in December 2006 but the hospital backed out of the operation when Dr. David Parkus, a surgeon at Beaumont's Christus St Elizabeth hospital, noted the bone of Bush's forehead had begun growing around the slug, requiring a more extensive surgery than planned. After failing to find another doctor to perform the surgery the prosecution gave up and said they were confident of convicting Bush without the bullet.

The bullet's bulge on Bush's forehead was plainly visible when he appeared in court Friday. The withdrawn guilty pleas covered two separate cases. The aggravated assault charge was for shooting at the car lot's manager, Allen Olive. The other charge was an unrelated deadly conduct charge for shooting at a teenager on March 30, 2006, at the Port Arthur school district baseball field while a Memorial High School game was under way.