Will the Mike Ramos murder trial be moved out of Travis County? Lawyers present arguments

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the name of Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

Prosecuting and defense attorneys in the case of Austin police officer Christopher Taylor, who is charged with killing a man in 2020, presented arguments Thursday on whether the trial should be moved out of Travis County.

Taylor's lawyers filed to have the trial moved in July on the grounds that Taylor would be unable to obtain a fair trial in Travis County due to the publicity surrounding it and public perception of the death of Michael Ramos.

District Judge Dayna Blazey said she will make a ruling Friday on whether to move the trial outside of the county. Trials have rarely been moved out of Travis County, former state District Judge Brenda Kennedy previously told the American-Statesman.

The 319-page filing to move the trial out of Austin received the support of former District Attorney Margaret Moore, whose administration first investigated the case; Charlie Baird, a former state district judge and judge on Texas’ highest criminal court; and well-known Austin attorneys Sam Bassett, Gerry Morris, Joe James Sawyer, Joe Turner and Wayne Meissner.

Taylor's lawyers, Doug O'Connell, Ken Ervin and Rob Daniel, also cited the difficulty of seating a jury, in part because many potential jurors had already formed an opinion about the case, as a reason to change the location.

A judge declared Taylor's trial a mistrial in May after flyers about the case were placed on some of the potential jurors' cars.

More: Exclusive: APD officer Christopher Taylor wants murder trial moved out of Austin

"We did not file (the motion) prior to trying to get a jury; we did not allege the sky was falling before it was falling,” Ervin said in opening remarks. "We simply had no choice but to do this because of what happened in May."

Taylor fatally shot the unarmed Ramos, who was Black and Latino, in an apartment complex parking lot in Southeast Austin on April 24, 2020, after a 911 caller reported that a group of people were using drugs and that they believed someone had a weapon. Responding officers said Ramos did not comply with orders and that they tried to use "less lethal" ammunition to subdue him.

Officers said Ramos got in a car and started driving away, which is when Taylor shot and killed him. Taylor's attorneys said he shot Ramos to protect other officers who were in the path of the car.

Ramos' killing came just a month before George Floyd's death in Minneapolis sparked nationwide Black Lives Matter protests. Ramos' name was often shouted locally during protests in 2020, and murals with his portrait can be seen in the city.

Lawyers present evidence for, against moving trial

A central argument by the defense was that flyers, like the ones put on some of the potential jurors' cars, could not be stopped if the trial remained in Travis County.

Prosecuting attorneys countered by saying that flyers could be put on cars in any county.

Angela Jones, a Texas State University criminal justice professor who specializes in pretrial publicity, said that media coverage has been "pro-prosecution," according to an analysis of 49 news articles given to her by Taylor's lawyers. She said this makes it "practically impossible" for a fair trial in Travis County.

More: Judge declares mistrial in Austin police officer murder case during jury selection

Jones said people living in Austin likely heard about the high-profile case, and even if they didn't remember, people could still have unconscious bias about the case since much of the coverage painted Taylor in a negative light.

Prosecutor Dexter Gilford countered by questioning the validity of the report because the 49 articles were given to Jones by Taylor's lawyers. He said that before the flyers were passed out, only a fraction of the possible jurors said they had heard about the case in May.

Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, who has expertise in public polling, said the research conducted with the 49 articles "doesn't speak at all" to the opinions of eligible jurors in Travis County. He said the research relied on articles provided by the defense with no explanation as to why they were selected, which made it appear that those articles were selected solely for the reason of justifying the change of venue.

Ervin said in his closing remarks that a "dangerous combination" of biased media coverage and public perception made a fair trial unlikely. State prosecutor Gary Cobb countered that the "dangerous combination" was not based on evidence.

"(Taylor) committed murder in this community, and this community should try him," Cobb said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Arguments made to move Mike Ramos murder trial out of Austin