APD officer to be retried on murder charge, Travis County DA says
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Police Department officer Christopher Taylor will go on trial again, after facing two mistrials, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza told KXAN’s Brianna Hollis.
Taylor was charged with murder in the 2020 shooting death of Michael Ramos.
Austin police officer’s murder trial ends in hung jury, mistrial
Garza said he plans to fully retry Taylor’s case. A pretrial hearing is set for Wednesday, Dec. 13.
Less than a month ago, a second mistrial was declared in the case.
Ken Ervin, one of Taylor’s attorneys, told KXAN at the time, “In the event that they intend to do that [retry], obviously we will be ready, and we will try this case as many times as it takes to get a not guilty.”
“The idea that they have to go through another one of these, I think is really troubling to them and to me, but at the end of the day, the interest of justice demand that the District Attorney retry this case,” Austin Justice Coalition Policy Director Chris Harris said outside of the courtroom last month after the second mistrial.
History of the murder charge
Officers responded in 2020 to an apartment complex on South Pleasant Valley Road, to a woman calling 911 claiming a driver was doing drugs and holding a gun.
During their meeting with Ramos, video showed Ramos get in his car and attempted to drive off, as officer blocked the exit.
Taylor fired three shots.
It was later discovered Ramos had no gun, and the initial 911 caller said on the stand she lied to emergency call takers. Taylor remains on administrative leave.
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