Deputy’s manslaughter charge dropped

Lawyer for family of man killed calls DA’s move ‘perplexing’

The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office has dropped a manslaughter charge against a sheriff ’s deputy in the fatal shooting of an Elmendorf man two years ago.

A grand jury last week indicted the deputy, Brandin Moran, in the killing of Jesus Benito Garcia on March 9, 2020. Moran was dispatched to Garcia’s trailer home after reports that Garcia was in a dispute with his wife, was pleading with her not to leave him and was holding a screwdriver.

District Attorney Joe D. Gonzales announced Friday that after reviewing the incident, he and a team of veteran prosecutors had decided the manslaughter charge against Moran would not stand up in court.

“This office is committed to holding police accountable when they commit a wrongdoing,” Gonzales said in a statement. “We also, however, do not prosecute cases we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and we take this responsibility just as seriously.”

A lawyer for Texas Rio Grande

Legal Aid, which is representing Garcia’s widow and other family members in a civil lawsuit against the county and Moran, called the DA’s decision “perplexing and disappointing.”

“The family has been waiting for two years for some form of justice and are deeply upset by this about-face,” said lawyer Matthew Garcia (no relation to Jesus Garcia).

Moran was sent to Jesus Garcia’s home to assist Elmendorf police in dealing with a report of a domestic violence incident. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said at the time of the shooting that Garcia, 47, had approached Moran and an Elmendorf officer in a threatening manner while holding a knife or a box cutter.

In his announcement Friday, Gonzales provided more detail about the encounter and said that under Texas law, police can use lethal force to prevent or stop an aggravated kidnapping.

“In this case, Deputy Moran