HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – “This is the first time this story has been told to any media outlet,” said Precinct 4 Officer Mark Herman.

What drove 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 the motion to dismiss 351st Criminal Court Judge Nata Cornelio from the Haskell case.

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He transported the death row inmate from Huntsville to the Harris County Jail for three weeks last summer to get an MRI, according to court documents.

Apparently only appellate attorneys Haskell and Herman knew this.

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

Herman was assistant chief in 2014.

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

This call came from Cassidy Stay. His uncle, Ron Haskell, arrived dressed as a deliveryman.

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

“Cassidy Stay faked her death. When the man came out of the house, she was able to get to the phone and call 911 to our office and actually direct us there,” Herman said. “I was walking next to the deputies as the EMTs were trying to load him up, and he was giving us the information that his uncle did it. He was driving a little red car and was on his way to the grandparents’ house.”

As assistant chief, Herman was in charge of the dog team. He says the entire crew was at the Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department that day. He told them to go to Anvil Drive, which he said was where Cassidy’s grandparents lived.

“Look for a little red car and that’s when the police radio came on and we were in pursuit. We started chasing it,” Herman said.

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Haskell was arrested before he could continue his killing spree.

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

Being so close to the scene, the police officer says he has no doubt that this 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 Cassidy was the real hero by making that phone call, pretending to be dead. He made it happen.”

Five years after watching her family die, Cassidy addressed Haskell when he was sentenced to death.

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

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

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