Habitual Waco offender sentenced to prison for high-speed chase granted new trial

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A habitual offender sentenced to 40 years in prison last year for fleeing police during a high-speed chase won a new trial Monday after an appeals court ruled that the judge improperly blocked a possible defense in her instructions to the court. jury.

The Tenth Court of Appeals in Waco overturned Qualon Deshon Weaver’s evading arrest conviction after ruling that 54th State District Judge Susan Kelly abused her discretion by striking down a defense request to include what is known as the “necessity defense” in their jury instructions.

Weaver and his attorney, David Hudson, argued that Weaver attempted to elude a Woodway officer because he was a victim of police brutality in 2016 and has been afraid of police officers since then, especially at night.

Former Waco Police Officer George Neville was convicted in 2018 on charges of assault and official oppression and was placed on felony probation for strangling a handcuffed Weaver during an arrest on drug charges.

Hudson argued that Weaver believed his conduct in the November 2019 incident was immediately necessary to prevent imminent harm and that was a question left to the jury’s discretion.

Prosecutors objected to giving that option to the jury, and Kelly sustained the objection and excluded the “necessity defense” option in his instructions to the jury.

In its 11-page opinion, written by Judge Steve Smith, the three-judge intermediate appeals court ruled that Kelly erred in quashing the defense motion.

“In the absence of an instruction of necessity, the jury had no means to acquit Weaver of the charged crime to which he fully admitted,” according to the opinion. “We hold that Weaver suffered some harm from the trial court’s failure to charge the jury with the necessity defense.”

McLennan County First Assistant District Attorney Ryan Calvert said his office is considering appealing the ruling by filing a petition for discretionary review with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Weaver testified at trial that he felt his life was in danger because of the 2016 incident with Neville and because he didn’t know why the Woodway officer was pulling him over after seeing him at a convenience store.

“If my life is in danger, I have two options: fight or flee,” Weaver testified.

Prosecutors Kristi DeCluitt and Luke McCowan played a 10-minute video for the jury that showed former Woodway officer Christopher Marek pulling Weaver over at Richland Mall while Weaver was driving his friend’s Nissan Altima.

Marek testified that he knew Weaver well, so he ran a driver’s license check after seeing him at a convenience store at State Highway 6 and U.S. Highway 84. Marek said the check showed Weaver did not have a license. driver’s license and that the car was not insured, so he followed him from the store, turned on his lights and Weaver pulled into the Richland Mall parking lot.

However, as Marek put on his coat and walked toward Weaver’s vehicle, Weaver took off at high speed. The officer chased Weaver through the shopping center parking lot, down Richland Drive, toward Bosque Boulevard and through residential neighborhoods at speeds that reached 90 mph, Marek said. Weaver, who turned off the car’s lights during the chase, crashed the car into a tree at North 34th Street and Ethel Avenue, but was not seriously injured.

After he was detained, officers found $12,847 stuffed in the sleeves of his Dallas Cowboys jacket, marijuana residue, sandwich bags, often used to package drugs, scales, commonly used to weigh drugs, and dryer sheets, used by drug dealers to try to mask the smell of marijuana, the officer said.

The state later forfeited the cash in a default judgment after Weaver failed to respond to the seizure notice.

Weaver was convicted of sexual assault in 2002, convicted twice of felony cocaine possession in 2005 and was placed on deferred probation in Dallas County for possession of 35 pounds of marijuana.

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