EXCLUSIVE: Juror in APD officer Christopher Taylor trial discusses 'polarizing situation'

Soon after jurors huddled in a courthouse back room to decide whether to convict or acquit Austin police officer Christopher Taylor in the death of Michael Ramos, the battle to reach a unanimous verdict became clear.

A quick poll showed six were firmly “not guilty” votes, according to a juror who spoke to the American-Statesman. Four said they would not budge from convicting Taylor in the controversial April 2020 shooting that ignited community outcry. Two remained undecided.

Over the next four days, jurors went line by line through witness testimony and reanalyzed evidence, and two undecided jurors decided to acquit. On the fifth day, they informed the judge that they were hopelessly deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial.

As the community awaits a decision from Travis County District Attorney José Garza about whether he will retry the case, the juror who spoke to the Statesman expressed doubt that 12 people could agree on whether Taylor was justified in firing at Ramos as he began driving during a confrontation with police. Taylor’s lawyers say he shot to protect himself and fellow officers from the car, while prosecutors say Ramos was only attempting to flee.

“I think it would be difficult because it is such a polarizing situation,” the juror said. “People have their feelings on it, especially after these last three years. It will be very difficult to get 12 people to be the same from different backgrounds.”

In the days since the deadlocked verdict, the Statesman attempted to reach each of the jurors for a window into deliberations. Of those contacted, only one agreed to discuss the case, but she asked that she not be named. In an unusual effort to protect jurors, the panel was shuttled to and from the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center by law enforcement officers after meeting at a secret location. During the trial, state District Judge Dayna Blazey admonished a man who apparently photographed jurors as they were leaving the courthouse.

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For the four jurors wanting to convict Taylor, “it was based on the number of shots,” the juror said. “They could justify the first shot, but they think — situational awareness — should have allowed him to take one shot ... and not take the second shot, which ultimately killed him. It was the second and third shots that were just too much for them.”

For those wanting to acquit the officer, “it goes to Taylor’s perception,” she said.

“It was a reasonable thought that he was going to go after them, but it all happens in two seconds, and you don’t have time to think that much into it,” the juror added.

She said the deliberations were “actually really respectful. There wasn’t any fighting. We would, sure, get into some heated discussions, but it was not in a bad way.”

The juror would not say how she voted, but she said her decision was not easy, that she carefully considered the evidence and found both the prosecutors and Taylor’s attorneys made valid statements.

“There was quite a bit of evidence, and there were things you got to see from all different viewpoints because there were seven body cams, seven or six dash cams to go through, you had a couple of bystanders,” she said. “You just had so much views of the situation that was going on. You start seeing, ‘OK, that is what really happened’ but ‘in this view something happened that you didn’t see before.’ ”

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She added, “There were days, in my head, when I would say, ‘Today was a good day for the prosecution’ or ‘Today was a good day for the defense' just based on different things I saw in court, but every day it was kind of changing up until that end.”

During deliberations, Austin police SWAT officer Jorge Pastore was shot and killed and a second officer was wounded after police responded to a 911 call from a person who reported being stabbed. Pastore was the first officer to die in an on-duty shooting since the April 2012 death of Jaime Padron.

The juror said Pastore’s death did not play a role in the deliberations.

“I mentioned it in the room, in a comment like, ‘you know what happened this past weekend,’ ” she said, adding that she had only seen a breaking news alert on her phone and did not know specifics. “There were some people who were like, they recognized it, and most of them said we were told to stay away from the news, and I obeyed the judge’s order.

“And so that is where the conversation ended, and it did not get into our conversation,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Juror in Austin officer Christopher Taylor trial talks deliberations