Christopher Taylor trial: Defense files motion for change of venue
AUSTIN, Texas - Attorneys for Austin police officer Christopher Taylor are seeking a change of venue for his upcoming murder trial.
Taylor is accused of shooting and killing 42-year-old Mike Ramos in Southeast Austin in 2020.
In a 324-page motion filed July 25, Taylor's attorneys claim his case cannot be fairly tried in Travis County due to pretrial media coverage and social media posts and comments, the attempted jury selection proceedings in May which resulted in a mistrial, comments from local politicians and political candidates, and attempted intimidation of prospective jurors.
The murder trial first attempted to pick up in May, but was ruled a mistrial after a four-day jury selection process failed to produce a jury of 14, and claims of jury intimidation.
Rick Cofer, a defense attorney, says it is not a shock that this motion was the defense's next move.
"They don't think Christopher Taylor can receive a fair trial in Travis County," said Cofer.
Attached to the motion were also pages of affidavits and unsworn declarations from Travis County residents and attorneys supporting the defense's assertion.
Pages of affidavits and unsworn declarations from former Travis County District Attorney Margret Moore, a retired Travis County judge, and several lawyers were attached to the motion supporting the defense's assertion to move the trial to a different county.
"The defense will have to show that because of the publicity and because of the nature of this case, that Christopher Taylor cannot receive a fair and impartial trial in Travis County. That's not easy to do," said Cofer.
"One element that may help the defense is the fact that this is the very first prosecution of an Austin Police Department officer for a murder committed in the course of duty. Already, this case is far outside what is typical in Travis County courts that may result in this motion being granted. Nonetheless, it is a high burden of proof for the defense," said Cofer.
The motion also suggests that the Court move the case to San Saba County or Comal County, as these are the only counties outside the Austin media market that lie within adjoining judicial districts as in accordance with the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
According to the defense team in June, Travis County has only granted a total of three motions for a change of venue in the last 40 years. Before a judge makes a decision for this case, there will be a hearing as to why this case should or should not be moved.
There is no set date on when a judge will rule on this request, but the state has about 30 days to respond to the motion. The DA’s office could not comment because a gag order has been requested.
What happened in April 2020?
In April 2020, APD got a call about a man in a car with a gun possibly doing drugs. The man was Ramos, who was then shot and killed by Taylor on scene. APD later disclosed Ramos was unarmed.
The shooting occurred in a parking lot at the Rosemont at Oak Valley apartments. Video shows Ramos lifting his shirt and circling around himself to show that he didn’t have a gun and can be heard saying "I don't got no f***ing guns y'all."
Police yelled commands at Ramos before Ramos was shot once with a bean bag. Then-Austin Police Chief Brian Manley says the less-lethal weapon was fired by a rookie police officer.
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Ramos then got into a car and attempted to drive away when Taylor allegedly shot him three times with a rifle in the back of the head. Ramos’ family has since claimed his fourth amendment rights were violated and a judge recently denied Officer Taylor's motion to dismiss the civil lawsuit against him.
Ramos' death sparked protests in the city of Austin, with hundreds of people gathering in front of Austin police headquarters. More than a thousand marched from APD's headquarters to the Texas State Capitol and back. Protesters also disrupted traffic on I-35 and caused service delays for CapMetro.
Over a dozen APD officers were later indicted for allegedly using excessive force during the protests, including bean bag rounds fired from shotguns.
Previous use of deadly force
Taylor is also facing another murder charge connected to the July 2019 death of Dr. Mauris Desilva, who was having a mental health crisis and APD received reports from his neighbors about it.
Police have said DeSilva walked towards them with a knife, although their explanation has been disputed. DeSilva was shot and taken to the hospital where he later died.
Officer Karl Krycia was also indicted. Both he and Taylor face charges of first-degree murder and third-degree felony deadly conduct.
Taylor's attorneys have stated that he used "appropriate force" in the 2019 shooting.
Just four months before the Ramos shooting, attorneys filed a petition calling for a use-of-force investigation of all three officers involved in DeSilva's death. The petition called for evidence to be released.
Murder charges
In March 2021, almost a full year after Ramos' death, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza announced that Taylor was indicted by a Travis County grand jury of first-degree murder.
"Today we have taken a significant step towards justice for the Ramos family and for our community," said Garza at the time. "My heart continues to break for the Ramos family, and we still have much work ahead of us, but we know that holding law enforcement accountable when they break the law is critical to restoring the trust of our community and to ensuring its safety."
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Taylor's attorneys issued a statement following the announcement, saying they were disappointed but not surprised and that "as early as July [2020], then-DA candidate Jose Garza had made up his mind that Officer Taylor committed a crime and went so far as to offer an implied promise to indict him several months before being elected District Attorney or having access to any case evidence."
The attorneys then echoed this sentiment in the motion filed Tuesday, citing a campaign email Garza sent out on June 1, 2020, mentioning Mike Ramos and other people of color that have "experienced violence from law enforcement in Travis County."
May 2023 mistrial and juror intimidation
The original trial for Taylor began on Monday, May 22 with jury selection, but after four days, the court did not have enough people to fill a 14-person jury.
Out of 130 potential jurors examined by both sides, only seven jurors were chosen. Due to this, the defense filed a motion for a mistrial, which Judge Dayna Blazey granted.
According to a tweet by Christopher Taylor’s defense attorney Doug O’Connell, this motion for a mistrial was based on inability to seat a jury after four days of jury selection. It was also based on alleged juror tampering and juror intimidation.
An envelope allegedly left on a potential juror's car during jury selection for the murder trial of Austin police officer Christopher Taylor
The defense's mistrial motion stated envelopes were found by three potential jurors and contained threatening and intimidating images and words related to Taylor's case. This scared many potential jurors even if they did not receive one.
In the change of venue motion filed July 25, the defense says a potential juror informed the Court that she had not seen any other cars around her that had the flyer, which the defense says suggests that whoever had placed it on her car was intentionally targeting the vehicles of prospective jurors or was attempting to influence the jury.
Two other jurors expressed fear for their and their family's safety because of the flyer.
The defense says that because it is still unknown who placed the flyers, it is likely that attempts to intimidate the jury will continue if the case is tried in Travis County.