As the old saying goes, the wheels of justice turn slowly. Likewise, so do the wheels of injustice, as a self-defense case out of Waco, Texas, recently proved.
This week, the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office dismissed murder charges against two Houston men involved in the self-defense incident at a party near the Baylor University campus, finally determining it was a justifiable homicide. While that was good news to Calvin Nichols Jr., it hardly makes up for the 635 days the man spent locked up in jail while the DA’s office slowly dragged its feet over the case.
According to police reports, on the night in question Nichols and his cousin, Jaytron Damon Scott, were invited to a party attended by a number of Baylor students, including football players. According to partygoers, Joseph Craig Thomas Jr. showed up uninvited and began threatening others with a gun, including a female student who asked him to move his car.
He later stuck a gun under the chin of a Baylor football player. And when Scott and Nichols were leaving the party, Thomas began to pistol whip Nichols.
That’s when Scott, acting in defense of his cousin, fired his pistol at Thomas, striking him multiple times and killing him. Murder charges were then filed against Scott and Nichols, a fact that Scott’s attorney, Bryan Cantrell, found unbelievable.
“I don’t know how this case got indicted,” Cantrell told KWTX.com. “This was the clearest self-defense case I have ever seen. And I think the problem is a lot of attorneys and, certainly the people of the community, don’t understand the law of self-defense.”
Cantrell added that since this was never a legitimate murder case, the public shouldn’t be worried about “murderers going free.”
“It scares the public that a murder case got dismissed,” Cantrell said. “This was never a murder case. This was always a justified homicide. In fact, we have the investigating officer at the scene saying six or seven times, ‘Yeah guys, this is a justified homicide here.’”
Abel Reyna, Nichols’ attorney, was also pleased with the outcome, although the time it took left nothing to cheer about.
“We are pleased that the recently obtained evidence supported what we had been arguing on our client’s behalf over the past two-plus years,” Reyna told KWXT.com. “While it’s sad that Calvin was in jail for that period of time awaiting trial, we are pleased the DA’s office made the right decision in light of this evidence.”
The decision to drop the charges vindicated Nichols and Scott, but the time it took the DA’s office to decide to drop those charges is a travesty and a shame. One can only hope prosecutors will be more diligent in the future in trying to see justice served swiftly for those who shouldn’t even be charged.
Texas attorney Emily Taylor, who specializes in defending self-defense and gun-related cases for Walker & Taylor PLLC in Houston as well as for Texas members of U.S. LawShield, says the case serves as a cautionary tale to citizens who are forced to defend themselves.
“Self-defenders need to be aware that self-defense, defense of others and defense of property are affirmative defenses (in Texas). This means the government is free to arrest you, prosecute you and force you to assert your defense to a jury of your peers,” Taylor says. “We all hope the state does the right thing and declines to arrest the self-defender, but that kind of common sense is, unfortunately, increasingly rare.”
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