Murder of Paul Broussard

Paul Broussard, a 27-year-old Houston-area banker and Texas A&M alumnus, was attacked in a parking lot in Houston's Montrose neighborhood just after 2:00 a.m. on July 4, 1991. He was walking with friends Cary Anderson and Richard Delaunay when they encountered ten youths from the suburb of The Woodlands — nine teenagers aged 15 to 17 and one 22-year-old — who had been drinking and using drugs and had been turned away from several Montrose clubs. The group asked Broussard and his friends for directions before attacking them with fists, steel-toed boots, bear claws, and a pocket knife wielded by 17-year-old Jon Buice. Broussard suffered abrasions, puncture wounds, a broken rib, bruised testicles, and two stab wounds; as he lay on the ground, some attackers went through his pockets and took a comb. Anderson and Delaunay escaped.

Emergency responders reportedly gave Broussard's case low transport priority, a delay attributed by an expert medical examiner to hesitancy around potential HIV exposure during the early AIDS crisis. A trip that should have taken about eight minutes to St. Joseph Medical Center took roughly 40 minutes, and it was a further hour before a doctor treated his wounds. Broussard died of internal injuries, with a medical examiner later citing "a delay in treatment" as a contributing factor.

Houston gay-rights leader Ray Hill said police initially told him they had no intention of solving the case. This prompted large public demonstrations organized in part by Queer Nation Houston, including protests outside Mayor Kathy Whitmire's home, described as the largest and longest-lasting gay-rights demonstrations in Houston's history at the time. Broussard's mother, Nancy Rodriguez, participated in the protests. The resulting media attention led to a tip from one attacker's girlfriend, and all ten youths — dubbed the "Woodlands Ten" — were arrested and signed confessions without attorneys present.

All ten were convicted through plea bargains without the case going to trial. One attacker received probation in exchange for testifying against the others; four others received probation, with some later imprisoned after violating probation terms. Jon Buice, who inflicted the stab wounds, received a 45-year sentence. Chance Paul Dillon received a 20-year sentence for attempted murder and aggravated attempted murder. Three other defendants each received 15 years and one day. Rodriguez and Queer Nation criticized the sentences as too lenient.

Dillon was released in March 2000 after six years, under a since-repealed mandatory release law. Buice, the last of the group still incarcerated, was denied parole multiple times between 2003 and 2014 before being granted parole and released to his father's custody on December 30, 2015, under strict supervision. In 1999, Buice wrote an open letter apologizing to the gay community, stating the attack stemmed more from thrill-seeking and peer pressure than homophobia. A 2006-initiated documentary, "The Guy With The Knife," examined the case, including an unusual friendship that developed between Hill and Buice, and Hill's later acknowledgment that he had exaggerated the attack's motive to spur police action. In January 2020, Buice was arrested in The Woodlands for driving while intoxicated.