Devonte Amerson is wondering when, or if, this is ever going to end.
For almost seven years, Hays County prosecutors have accused Amerson and his alleged co-conspirator, Cyrus Gray, of murdering Texas State student Justin Gage. But the county dropped the capital murder charge against Gray in the summer of 2023 and, ever since, Amerson has assumed the county would do the same for him. Instead, it updated the indictment in mid-December, adding aggravated assault and robbery charges. Now it looks like Amerson will face trial after all.
On Monday, Hays County District Judge Bruce Boyer rejected Amerson’s latest effort to get the charges dismissed, leaving him visibly distraught. “I didn’t do this,” Amerson said after the decision. “And the evidence shows that. All I want is the chance to live my life without these false accusations hanging over me.”
San Marcos police arrested Amerson and Gray in March of 2018, alleging the pair had killed Gage during a robbery gone wrong. Both men spent years in jail awaiting trial. At Gray’s trial in the summer of 2022, prosecutors presented cellphone tower evidence showing that he and Amerson had been near the murder when it happened. They also presented three witnesses who claimed Gray had mentioned a botched robbery, two of whom recanted on the stand. They did not present eyewitnesses, video, fingerprints, or DNA connecting Gray to the murder. They didn’t even have the murder weapon. The case was declared a mistrial after four days of jury deliberation.
Gray was released on bond months later. The murder charge against him was dropped in July of 2023, but “without prejudice,” meaning that prosecutors could refile the charges in the future. Amerson was released on bond in December 2023. Since then, he has endured a string of court appearances that have not seemed to bring the case closer to resolution.
“It’s beyond us how this was allowed to happen and why this case is proceeding today.” – Devonte Amerson’s attorney David Sergi
Monday’s hearing was another of these. The purpose was for Amerson’s attorney, David Sergi, to argue that the charges be dropped because of “spoliation” – the loss or destruction of important evidence by prosecutors. During Gray’s trial, it became apparent that Hays County had lost taped interviews from at least eight witnesses questioned in 2016, after Gage’s murder but before the arrests of Amerson and Gray. According to testimony at the hearing, the interviews, saved as mp3s, were erased during an update of SMPD’s computer system, when they were mistaken for music files.
Sergi described the loss of the interviews as “an unfunny comedy of errors” which denies Amerson the right to present a full defense. He homed in on a fragment of an interview that remains, which refers to a possible confession by another suspect.
“This is a confession that, had it hit the light of day, neither my client nor Gray would have faced prosecution,” Sergi told the court. “It’s beyond us how this was allowed to happen and why this case is proceeding today.”
Boyer was, as he has been through argument after argument, unmoved. He chose not to dismiss the charges, but said he would disclose to the jury in Amerson’s trial that the county had lost the evidence, something that would reflect poorly on their prosecution. He set the next hearing in the case for Jan. 29.
Afterward, Amerson’s family and supporters gathered outside the courtroom, deflated. Sergi told them their presence was keeping pressure on the courts. Amerson’s mother Chelesta said it was heartbreaking to see her son go through the process. Pastor Darius Todd, a supporter who attends most of the hearings, said the case is illustrative.
“It’s a reminder of how our system can fail,” Todd said. “The state’s constant delays and lack of evidence make this process unjust. The personal toll is immense and unfair.”
This article appears in January 17 • 2025.
