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topicnews · September 18, 2024

Travis prosecutor waives murder charges against Austin police officer

Travis prosecutor waives murder charges against Austin police officer

Travis County prosecutors will not pursue the murder trial of Austin police officer Christopher Taylor for the 2019 shooting death of a man. Instead, they are seeking a conviction for a less serious crime.

The attorney for the family of Mauris DeSilva, a scientist and researcher who was shot during what officials and family members said was a mental illness, and attorneys for Taylor confirmed the development to the American-Statesman on Tuesday. The murder trial was scheduled to begin on Monday.

A spokesman for District Attorney Jose Garza said prosecutors would not comment on the pending case, but added that a pretrial hearing was scheduled for Friday.

Prosecutors recently met with DeSilva’s family, including his father, Denzil Desilva, to inform them of the decision to instead charge Taylor with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, attorney Brad Vinson said.

Vinson said prosecutors told them, “We think it’s better for the case, better for the jurors in Travis County in these cases, and that’s how we’re going to proceed.”

“I think their office may have thought a jury in Travis County would be more likely to convict (police officers), and they found that the juries in Travis County are more technical,” Vinson said. “They are very educated and technical in the way they evaluate evidence.”

The decision is the latest instance in which Garza has changed his strategy or dropped a charge entirely in a case involving police accountability, a key issue that helped the district attorney win election in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The murder charge against Taylor in DeSilva’s death made national headlines as it was the second time the officer had been charged with murder in connection with a fatal on-duty shooting.

The 2019 shooting occurred when police officers were called to an apartment building in the Spring condominium complex in downtown Austin because a man was holding a knife to his throat. When officers arrived, the man was already inside the building, and when officers confronted him, DeSilva disobeyed their commands and approached officers with the knife.

DeSilva’s family said the use of deadly force was not justified and that the shooting highlighted the need for officers to be better trained in handling calls from mental health professionals.

The following year, Taylor was part of a group of police officers who responded to the parking lot of a southeast Austin apartment complex. The case ended with police shooting a man. When officers arrived, Michael Ramos disobeyed their orders. Instead, he got into a car and drove off when Taylor opened fire, killing Ramos. Last year, the jury could not agree whether Taylor committed murder, and prosecutors have since said they are dropping the case.

By dropping a murder charge, prosecutors no longer have to prove in court that Taylor intentionally killed DeSilva. But whether Taylor shot DeSilva in self-defense or others is likely to remain a key question.

“DA Garza seems to finally realize that he has overreached himself with his charges against police officers,” said attorney Ken Ervin, who is representing Taylor along with attorney Doug O’Connell. “But his dropping the murder charge while pursuing the deadly conduct charge shows he still has a long way to go in understanding basic Texas law.”

“If it was legal to shoot someone in self-defense, it was first legal to shoot that same person,” he added.

Vinson said his client is not upset about the latest developments in the case, but rather hopes “for a just outcome for the DeSilva family that will result in Officer Taylor being held accountable for his reckless actions that led to Mr. DeSilva’s death.”

Taylor would face a less severe sentence if convicted at his upcoming trial. He could have received a life sentence if found guilty of murder, but now faces up to 10 years behind bars if convicted of deadly conduct.

“I think that the dismissal of the murder charge raises serious questions about the state’s ability to prove this case in court,” said Jorge Vela, a former federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney from Austin who has followed the case. “I think they’re saying they overcharged in this case, but I don’t think it ultimately changes the main issue.”

“This is about self-defense and the defense of others,” he said.

Garza’s record as a police prosecutor

During his first term as district attorney, Garza and his Public Integrity Unit failed to secure convictions in any of the more than two dozen cases they brought against police officers.

Prosecutors have dropped all but four of 21 cases against officers for using force against demonstrators during protests in May and June 2020 and instead asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Austin Police Department.

Garza sent the invitation to the Justice Department in February, but the federal agency did not respond.

In March, a jury found former Williamson County sheriff’s deputies Zachary Camden and James Johnson not guilty of manslaughter for their roles in the death of Javier Ambler II. The verdict came just two days after Garza handily won the Democratic primary for district attorney, effectively confirming his re-election in the upcoming November election.

It was the third use-of-force trial under Garza that ended without a conviction. In October 2022, a jury acquitted former Austin police officer Nathaniel Stallings of the offenses he was accused of during a 2017 arrest.

Garza told the Statesman earlier this year that prosecutors face institutional hurdles in prosecuting police officers, including the way law enforcement investigates such cases. He added that turning cases over to the grand jury allows the community to have a say in such matters.

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