A grand jury indicted Joseph Mobley on Thursday for the manslaughter of Dwayne Guidry.
Mobley, 32, was arrested Oct. 6 after police learned that he engaged into a car chase with Guidry, 25, that eventually turned into a neighborhood footrace and concluded with Mobley hitting Guidry in the back of the head with a hammer and strangling him to death.
Mobley was standing over Guidry’s body when police arrived. He reported from the South Austin scene that he’d witnessed Guidry steal a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver’s Ford Mustang and decided to chase after him with his wife and children in the car. He said that his choke hold form was “the right way” and that he kept his body on top of Guidry’s because, an arrest affidavit notes, he “was taught that ‘when they wake up they will attack you.’”
But a grand jury concluded yesterday that he did recklessly cause the death of Guidry when he enforced his chokehold, thus cutting off blood circulation to the brain and impeding Guidry’s breath. It considered that Mobley’s arm and body could be considered deadly weapons but made no mention of the hammer. A medical examiner noted two separate injuries to the back of Guidry’s head during autopsy.
Shortly after the arrest, APD Sergeant Brian Miller commended Mobley’s following of Guidry to the neighborhood but added that he would have appreciated it if Mobley had alerted police to the situation before taking such matters into his own hands. Police only learned of what was happening after receiving a call about the stolen car.
Mobley is next due in Karen Sage’s 299th District Court on March 30. In addition to the manslaughter charges, he faces charges of burglary for breaking into two different apartments in August of last year.
This article appears in March 13 • 2015.