AUSTIN (KXAN) – It took a Travis County jury around five hours to find Endicott McCray guilty of murder in the deadly shooting of Teqnika Moultrie on July 31, 2016.
Attorneys on both sides made their final case Thursday morning in McCray’s murder trial, which started on Tuesday. McCray, 26, also injured four others in the shooting on Sixth Street.
The sentencing phase began immediately after he was found guilty. The first woman called to testify during sentencing was Michelle Macias. Macias says she was visiting last summer with a group of friends for a bachelorette party. Macias says she was leaving Voodoo Doughnut when she was shot in the ankle. She says the injury caused her to miss six weeks of work and it’s still difficult for her to be in big groups of people.
The jury will return to court Friday morning to sentence McCray, he can receive up to a life sentence for the crime.
During their closing arguments, prosecutors say one of the victims identified McCray as the shooter along with two of McCray’s friends who were with him that night. The state says McCray’s brother-in-law, Chris Walker, was with McCray and saw him pull the gun out of his waistband. Allegedly, Walker had just called McCray out for not going to his daughter’s birthday party.
Prosecutors painted the picture of Walker being scared that night and McCray standing angrily in the street when chaos was happening all around him. Prosecutors say McCray knew what he had done. Thirty to 40 minutes after the shooting he put gas in his car, figured out a way to switch cars with his sister and changed his appearance. As to why he left Austin, the defense says he was scared of Walker and after hearing about the shooting he feared police as a young black man.
The defense addressed the jury saying Moultrie deserves justice, but said convicting McCray of murder will not be justice. They claim both Walker and another witness were untrustworthy, ultimately arguing McCray wasn’t even on Sixth Street that night.
According to the defense, one witness said the shooter was wearing a red shirt, while McCray was not wearing a red shirt that night. However, Walker was and admitted that night he was wearing a red ball cap. In evidence presented to the jury, a red ball cap can be seen laying in the middle of Sixth Street. The defense wrapped up their closing arguments by saying there are many questions in the case and the jury cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt say McCray is the murderer.
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