Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said Wednesday that his office will not re-present the case of Marquise Jones to a new grand jury, nearly seven years after Jones was shot and killed by an off-duty San Antonio police officer.
It was the latest development in the controversial case that has raised questions about police misconduct and evidence tampering. Repeatedly, Jones’ death has been cited by police reform activists as an example of the need for change.
“In consideration of all available evidence, we believe that additional prosecution is not feasible at this time,” three top officials, including Gonzales, wrote in a 10-page memo about their decision. “It would not be appropriate for this case to be re-presented to a grand jury without sufficient evidence to overcome a self-defense claim.”
The announcement Wednesday comes four months after Gonzales assigned two top prosecutors in his office to re-examine all available evidence after receiving additional information about the shooting from Jones’ family.
Gonzales has not elaborated what that information was.
Jones, a 23 year-old father of one, was killed Feb. 28, 2014, at the Chacho’s and Chalucci’s on Perrin Beitel Road after Officer Robert Encina, who was working as an off-duty security guard, shot Jones in the back as he ran from the scene of a fender bender. He was a passenger in a car that hit another car in the drive-thru lane.
On ExpressNews.com: What did witnesses say? An overview of the Marquise Jones case
Encina, a six-year veteran of the SAPD at the time of the shooting, said that Jones brandished a gun as he ran, making Encina fear for his life.
Several witnesses challenged the police account that Jones had a gun — initially, only one witness corroborated Encina’s story.
Jones’ family said Jones ran from the car because he was on probation and was nervous about getting in trouble. They have long maintained that the gun was planted near his body in a cover-up by the police department — a claim city officials have denied.
The police department’s internal investigation of the shooting found Encina was justified in using force. In December 2015, then District Attorney Nico LaHood presented the case to a grand jury, which declined to indict Encina.
In 2017, Encina also was cleared of any wrongdoing by a federal jury in a wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed by Jones’ family. A federal judge later denied a request for a new trial.
Both the criminal case and the civil lawsuit hinged on whether Jones had a handgun and pointed it at Encina. But that handgun wasn’t actually tested for fingerprints until January 2016 — a month after the case was presented to the grand jury.
On ExpressNews.com: Outside review of SAPD investigation finds no wrongdoing
Detective Randall Hines, the lead homicide detective on the case, said the handgun wasn’t tested initially because it was in poor condition and it’s not standard practice to run prints at a crime lab. Studies show the probability of obtaining a usable print on a handgun ranges from 5 percent to 10 percent.
According to Police Chief William McManus, detectives decided to test the handgun in 2016 after a meeting with the local chapter of the NAACP, during which some people questioned why detectives did not attempt to obtain fingerprints on the gun.
Debbie Bush, Jones’ aunt, said at the time that the way detectives handled the evidence was one example of how the case was botched.
City officials hired an outside law firm in 2017 to review how detectives handled evidence in the case. The firm found there was no indication of misconduct, tampering or wrongdoing.
On ExpressNews.com: Floyd’s death renews outrage over killings of two black men in San Antonio
Still, Jones’ family have remained vocal advocates for police reform over the last seven years.
Last year, after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis reignited calls for police reform, the family urged the District Attorney’s Office to reopen the case.
Gonzales initially said that he had personally reviewed Jones’ case — in addition to other high-profile killings by local police officers — and there was no new evidence to warrant reopening the case at the time. That led to calls by dozens of Black Lives Matter activists for him to be voted out of office.
Gonzales changed course in September, saying that his office would re-examine the case after receiving the additional information from Jones’ family.
Daryl Harris, the new head of the new Civil Rights Division, and Jamissa Jarmon, chief of the Misdemeanor Division, conducted the review.
eeaton@express-news.net
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