Cyrus Gray and Devonte Amerson’s Cases Remain Unresolved After Years in Jail

Cyrus Gray, who spent four years in jail in San Marcos because he couldn't make bail (Photo by Jana Birchum)

The murder charge against Cyrus Gray was supposed to have been dropped by now. Back in March, Hays County Assistant District Attorney Gregg Cox stood before a San Marcos judge and said his office hoped to resolve Gray's case without a trial. Gray and his supporters believed that meant the D.A. was on the verge of dismissing the case. Instead, a new trial has been set for to begin July 26.

Gray, now 28 years old, was a physical trainer with no criminal record in 2018, when he and his childhood friend, Devonte Amerson, were arrested for the 2015 murder of Justin Gage, a student at Texas State University in San Marcos. Gray's trial in the summer of 2022 revealed that prosecutors had no eyewitnesses, video, fingerprints, or DNA connecting Gray and Amerson to the murder. They had phone records putting the pair in the vicinity of the murder, and testimony, which was mostly recanted on the stand, that Gray had told three people he was involved in a robbery gone wrong. The case was sent to a jury but was declared a mistrial after four days of deliberations, when jurors came down with COVID. Gray was released from jail on bond last November. Amerson, who has yet to be tried, remains locked up, five years and four months after his arrest.

Devonte's mother, Chelesta Amerson, told the Chronicle that on June 7, the Hays County D.A.'s Office offered Devonte a 15-year sentence to testify against Gray. She said her son rejected the offer out of hand. The Hays County D.A.'s Office has not responded to a request for comment.

Chelesta believes the offer demonstrates weakness in the state's case. "If you're offering somebody 15 years on a capital murder case, we already know that you have absolutely nothing," she said. "And if they do retry Cyrus' case, what new evidence could you possibly come up with? This murder happened in 2015, they were arrested in 2018, it's now 2023 – whose memory do you think is getting better? You want a conviction even if they didn't do it? So that's ridiculous. Let's go to trial."

Gray told us that his attorney has dropped off the case after disagreements about when and whether to file a motion for dismissal. This Spring, Gray wrote his own motion to District Judge Bruce Boyer, asking him to permanently dismiss the case because his right to a speedy trial has been violated. He is hoping for a decision on the motion on July 19, his next appearance in court.

"The prosecutor has put the judge in a terrible position – the fact that he's gone to court the last six months and made Boyer believe that he's going to resolve this case and there's not going to be another trial that costs thousands of taxpayer dollars," Gray said. "Now the judge has to spend that money – but you're spending those thousands of dollars on a case where the person is out of jail and most of his bond conditions have already been removed?"

Chelesta said her son has asked for a trial for three years in a row, but the date keeps getting reset. She is frustrated with his court-appointed attorney but is worried that seeking a new one will delay the case even more: "The thing about getting another attorney is that it pushes it back that much further. That was something the judge said – it'd be another year and a half. And he's already been in jail for five years."