After a reported 13 hours of deliberations over two days, a Travis Co. jury found 23-year-old
Edwin Delamora guilty of capital murder in the February 15, 2001 shooting death of Travis Co. Sheriff's Office Deputy
Keith Ruiz. Ruiz was assisting the now-defunct
Capital Area Narcotics Task Force with a forced entry during a drug raid at Delamora's Del Valle trailer home.
Leonard Martinez, Delamora's attorney, argued that his client didn't know police were raiding his home, and thought he was being robbed. Ruiz, 36, was killed by a single 9mm bullet that pierced his heart and lung, and lodged in his spine.
While Delamora admitted he had fired a shot from a 9mm pistol, Martinez argued that there was no way to prove that his client's bullet was the fatal one. At least one of the other eight CANTF members present during the raid had a 9mm pistol, but investigators never seized the officers' weapons in an effort to determine which guns were fired. Delamora will receive an automatic life sentence; the Travis Co. District Attorney's Office did not seek the death penalty.
