Rashad Owens, the driver charged with killing four people in a crash last year at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, was found guilty Friday.
In closing arguments Friday, prosecutor Amy Meredith told the Travis County jury to not talk about 23-year-old Rashad Owens' intent, but to focus on how he was aware his conduct could be deadly. She said the officer had been trying to conduct a simple traffic stop when Owens refused to comply and fled.
The Austin American-Statesman reports that Meredith told jurors that Owens had the wherewithal to turn on his blinker, maneuver his way around a gas station and swerve around a parked car in his way.
"There is no other answer than that the defendant knew what he was doing -- and he didn't care," Meredith said. "He didn't care who was in his way. He was not going to be stopped. He was not going to go to jail."
Owens faces up to life in prison if convicted of capital murder and four counts of felony murder. To find him guilty of capital murder, jurors must unanimously agree Owens intentionally or knowingly caused the death of two or more people when he drove into a downtown crowd. To prove murder, they have to find he had been fleeing from police when he committed an act clearly dangerous to human life.
Detective Richard Harrington, a crash reconstruction expert with Austin police, has testified that surveillance footage captured Owens' car traveling about 55 mph as he fled from the traffic stop and approached the festival crowd.
Defense lawyers Russell Hunt and Rick Jones described Owens as a young rapper from the small town of Killeen who had been unfamiliar with the city and had not meant to kill anyone as he fled police. They said he likely did not know the street had been closed off to traffic when he sped down it without headlights on.
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"We don't know at what point Mr. Owens perceived what was in front of him," Jones said. "We don't know what time he had to react."
