TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — The Travis County District Attorney’s Office has filed a petition for discretionary review in connection to the acquittal of former Austin police officer Christopher Taylor, who was cleared last year in the 2019 shooting death of Mauris DeSilva.
The petition was filed on March 3, asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to take up the case and review a December ruling that threw out Taylor’s deadly conduct conviction and entered a judgment of acquittal.
In January, the Austin Police Association was pushing the Austin Police Department to rehire Taylor, whose peace officer license was reinstated by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
The petition says the Amarillo court improperly weighed evidence and substituted its own judgment for that of the jury, which had convicted Taylor in 2024.
“The court of appeals erred to not have afforded the jury’s verdict, and implicit findings, the deference required in its review,” the petition states.
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DeSilva, who suffered from schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, was holding a kitchen knife to his throat in the hallway of his downtown Austin condominium building when four officers rode an elevator to find him. When the elevator doors opened, officers issued commands and DeSilva was shot. Taylor fired five times. DeSilva died at the scene.