I appreciate the San Marcos Daily Record and reporter Shannon West covering the case against my son Devonte Amerson and his co-defendant Cyrus Gray. [San Marcos Daily Record story of Thursday, July 20] I especially appreciate Ms West taking the time to correspond with my son and allowing his voice to be heard in this paper.
In the years since my son was arrested for a crime that he didn’t commit, our family has suffered an unimaginable loss. DJ (as we call him) has always been family-oriented.
He calls me and his sisters just about every day.
When DJ was home you could always find him with his son Kyze, playing around with his sisters, jumping on the trampoline, or out in the country with his granddad taking care of the horses and fishing.
Our house was always the house where he and all of his buddies would meet at to kick back, eat and have a good time.
Although my son is innocent of the charges against him, this kind, gentle and creative young man has been treated like a violent criminal, despite having never had his day in court.
This ordeal has taken a harsh toll on my family, but we have faith that justice will be served in the end.
The new Hays County District Attorney Kelly Higgins told this paper that the case against Cyrus was “probably over,” but he has provided no explanation as to why the case against my son remains open.
Last year, I took as much time off work as I could to watch the trial against Cyrus, and I read the transcripts when they became available.
In my opinion, the state lacked any real evidence against Cyrus–there was no DNA, no eyewitnesses, no murder weapon, no plausible motive, and no connection between him and my son and the victims.
During that trial my son was mentioned multiple times, yet never because the state had any real evidence against him either.
If the state believes there is viable evidence against my son, he has a right to know about it.
From our perspective, the only reason he remains in jail is the failure of anyone in power to right this terrible wrong against him.
I ask that the district attorney provide the public with an explanation for why Devonte deserves to remain incarcerated, and if he can’t do that, dismiss the charges against him.
My heart goes out to the family of Justin Gage. They deserve to know who killed their son, and for those people to be held accountable.
My son’s wrongful imprisonment does nothing to bring them closer to those goals. Faithfully, Chelesta Amerson
