By Audrey Valenzuela | Staff Writer
In a turn of events, the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office dropped charges against Jaytron Scott and Calvin Nichols Jr. involving a shooting at a party near Baylor in 2022.
When the incident occurred, the two individuals were charged with murder based on the available evidence portraying them to be the suspects. However, new evidence has risen, finding the suspects to have acted in self-defense.
Scott was seen shooting a handgun outside of a house on South Second Street, according to previous Lariat news. The victim, Joseph Thomas, was confirmed deceased at the scene. No other individuals were harmed.
McLennan County Assistant DA William Hix issued a press release regarding the incident with updated evidence to support the new decision. Video footage captured on a neighboring doorbell camera provided the context of the situation, showing each individual’s involvement.
The press release said if evidence suggests the possibility of defense of others, the prosecution is required to disprove that defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
At the time of the party, former Baylor student Allie Steed heard yelling and gunshots while inside her house. She reported being on the phone with a friend and watched from her window as authorities arrived and individuals gathered outside.
“Based on what I remember of the information, the whole reason the gun was at the party was that the individual who died brought one and was uninvited, threatening others and attacking one of the suspects,” Steed said.
According to McLennan’s first assistant DA Ryan Calvert, the footage showed Thomas threatening individuals with a handgun and assaulting Nichols. Shortly after, Scott shot at Thomas 10 to 14 times with his handgun as an act of defense of others.
“If you are in a position where you feel your or others’ lives are threatened, the law allows you to use deadly force. You are entitled to shoot until the threat is no longer there. There isn’t a limit to the number of shots that is and isn’t considered deadly force,” Calvert said.
Nichols was also charged with murder in 2022 for his role in aiding and abetting. Authorities pursued charges against Nichols, holding him responsible for contributing to the deadly outcome.
“In Texas, under the law of party, it says any person who helped commit a crime in any way is guilty of the same crime,” Calvert said.
The initial gunfire and involvement of the individuals became a focal point of the investigation, with some aspects remaining unclear. As law enforcement pieced together the evidence, the role of each participant came under scrutiny.
“Scott was clearly the shooter initially due to being caught on video. We don’t know who the shooter was the second time due to the assault moving further out of view of the camera, but we do know Nichols was there with Scott,” Calvert said.
The DA’s office dropped the charges against Scott and Nichols because they concluded that doing so would ensure justice. Rather than aiming for convictions, they saw the case as an act of “self-defense and defense of others,” committing to the proper application of the law.
“Our ethical and legal obligation is to not prosecute a case when a legitimate question exists about whether a defendant is guilty. An exhaustive review of this case’s evidence made clear that seeking a conviction would violate our oath to do justice,” Hix said.
