“I refuse to be defeated. I refuse to be treated less of a human than anyone else. God has given me the will to stand on that and move forward. I cried to God and He answered.”
SAN MARCOS — A ride on the Dallas North Tollway was normal for DeVonte Amerson. He had done it numerous times before, but April 29 was one for the books, as he received a call that would change life as he had known it: his capital murder case was dismissed.
Chelesta Amerson hugs her son, DeVonte, at a press conference May 6, celebrating his dismissal.
He laughed as he recalled telling his mother, who was in a pilates class at the time: “Once she stepped out, she was like, ‘Call your granny right now.’ So, that’s where the chain of phone calls started.”
DeVonte was a free man and he spent the rest of his day letting those in his life know the good news, too.
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It was March 5, 2018; DeVonte had just put his then-toddler into the carseat in Houston when he recalled police officers in unmarked cars racing out, guns drawn, toward him.
The San Marcos Police Department arrested DeVonte and Cyrus Gray, his co-defendant, on the same day for the 2015 murder of 20-year-old Justin Gage. According to SMPD, Gage’s murder was a “robbery gone bad,” which, five years after his arrest, added three superseding indictments to DeVonte’s initial charge of capital murder.
His arrest was followed by years of studying his own case and attempting to advocate for himself behind bars, said DeVonte, as his bond, once he received one, was set at $500,000, a price his family could not afford. Despite this, he continued his fight, maintaining his resiliency and his innocence.
In December 2023, DeVonte’s bond was lowered to $50,000, releasing him to his family for the first time in 2,107 days.
Gray was able to make bail a year prior, in November 2022, after receiving a mistrial. His case for capital murder was dismissed without prejudice July 18, 2023.
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DeVonte Amerson, right, supports Cyrus Gray as he speaks on the justice system and the experience that many incarcerated individuals face. The two were co-defendants in a 2015 capital murder case and have since both received dismissals.
“From [the day of our arrest] our lives stood still. We were held in Hays County jail for years. Years waiting for a trial that never came, waiting on a system that had no evidence, no DNA, no witnesses, no murder weapon, no fingerprints, nothing — except its own power and presumption of being guilty,” said Gray. “When the state takes your freedom like that — not just for days, for months, but for years — it tries to break your spirit and aims to erase you … When my charges were dropped, I was relieved, but I wasn’t free in my spirit because DJ was still inside. Because we had gone through the same hell and I knew he didn’t deserve it, not a single day,” said Gray.
DeVonte, his mother Chelesta Amerson and Gray have since spoken out regarding their story and the injustice they have felt, which inspired a community force to back the family.
This village, as Chelesta referred to it, aided DeVonte in obtaining a private attorney, who successfully argued to remove his ankle monitor. In February, new attorneys, Christopher Randall Self and co-counsel Brad Haggard took over the case.
According to Self, the phone records — “the whole case” against DeVonte — were illegally seized, so the defense was attempting a number of motions to suppress. The phone records consist of a series of cell phone tower pings, according to court documents. The suppression hearing was slated May 6 and if Self and Haggard won the argument, there would be no trial, but if they lost, the trial would have commenced May 12, as previously planned. Self explained that the prosecutor called him prior to the hearing and said he got the case dismissed, without prejudice.
“We’re in good shape, as far as having a speedy trial motion granted,” said Haggard. “The government sword still hangs over [DeVonte’s] head because [the dismissal is] without prejudice. The prosecution can come back with charges if they feel; they don’t have to have new evidence.”
Despite this fact, DeVonte, Chelesta and Gray held a press conference May 6 to celebrate and thank those who supported them, but also to acknowledge those still fighting on the inside.
DeVonte Amerson hugs his new attorney Chris Self, who obtained a dismissal without prejudice for the case.
“It’s not just about me; it's about everybody else that dealt with the same prosecutors, the same courthouse, the same judges and my situation, it shouldn’t happen to anyone else,” said DeVonte through tears. “... It's like [the court is] trying to sweep it under the rug like it didn’t happen. But what about the family? What about what Justin Gage’s family is going through? Somebody needs to answer.”
Reflecting on his journey, DeVonte stated that it has been difficult for him, but also his family, who have put more than $140,000 toward legal fees, not including money spent traveling back and forth to Hays County for pre-trial dates, only to have them reset, and for phone calls and food in jail.
He attributed his survival to God: “I had to humble myself in ways you wouldn’t have been able to imagine — being stripped naked, being treated like less of a man. To wake up everyday and still be motivated to make change and bring something to my family, to create something out of all of this chaos. I refuse to be defeated. I refuse to be treated less of a human than anyone else. God has given me the will to stand on that and move forward. I cried to God and He answered.”
One of the worst aspects of being in jail was missing out on his son’s life. DeVonte explained that his son was too young at the time everything happened, so he was unaware, only realizing that his dad was gone. As he ages, DeVonte’s broached the conversation with his son, but has saved the hard moments for when he’s older.
“Throughout the entire time of my incarceration, I was actually writing letters to him, things that I was going through, how I was feeling, my point of view on things. I got a lot of letters put up for him,” DeVonte said. “I told him about those letters [and] he wanted them then, but I said, ‘No, you have to wait ’til you’re older, so you can understand what I was writing.’ Later on in life, he’s going to learn from all of this without going through it.”
Chelesta thanked the community who knew her son before this case, yet stuck by him and those who learned to love the heart of the same little boy she raised along the way, such as Pastor Darius Todd, who provided housing for DeVonte after his release.
Pastor Darius Todd is emotional as he gives a speech at a May 6 press conference regarding DeVonte’s dismissal.
“I met Cyrus first, just after he was released from incarceration and I saw a young man who was broken and distressed, but holding up and standing strong. He introduced me to DJ and I was able to visit with him and I got to know the man, not the charges, and I recognized that this man was worth spending time with. He was worth it,” Todd stressed.
Both DeVonte and Gray noted that this is only a checkpoint in a long journey ahead of them and that the pair, though they survived, are an exception among the stories of others.
“We’re living proof that this system fails people every day. We’re living proof that community can bring people home and we also need to think about everyone that’s still locked up right now. Folks who don’t have lawyers, don’t have nonprofits [to help them] … who are just as innocent and just as deserving for their chance,” emphasized Gray.
As far as those in the same position that he was once in, DeVonte stressed to never stop advocating for yourself. The appointed defense attorneys, he continued, are luck-of-the-draw. So, research the case, break down the law and learn it and don’t get distracted by the other situations in jail.
“If you know you’re innocent in your situation, somebody [has] been in your shoes before you and there’s a law for it and you need to go find it, if you want to save your life,” he said. “Fight for your life immediately because at the end of the day, if you do go down the road to where they’re going to take you, you’re going to end up fighting for it there. Fight for it in the beginning.”
In this new era of life, DeVonte is working on entering the real estate business and hopes to have his son with him every step of the way.
