Shane James: Bexar County Has Indicted Him for His Parents' Killings, and the Death-Penalty Decision Is Still Open
A Travis County jury gave Shane James Jr. life without parole on Monday for four Austin killings. A Bexar County grand jury had already indicted him for two more — his own parents — and no court date is set.
AUSTIN — Shane James Jr.'s legal story did not end with Monday night's verdict. A Travis County jury needed about two hours on Nov. 9 to reject his insanity defense and convict him of capital murder for four killings in Austin, a conviction that carried an automatic sentence of life without parole, according to a legal analysis published Nov. 11 by San Antonio attorney Mario Del Prado.
Investigators say the first two people James shot were his own parents, Phyllis James and Shane James Sr., in their home in east Bexar County less than a day earlier, Del Prado wrote. A Bexar County grand jury indicted him for capital murder on Oct. 28, and the case is assigned to the 144th District Court. No court date had been set as of Nov. 10.
Trying him again is legally straightforward, Del Prado argues: double jeopardy bars a second trial for the same offense, and the Bexar County indictment covers two different people, killed in another county, hours earlier. He can also raise insanity a second time, because Texas judges that defense on the conduct charged — the Travis County jury answered the question for the Austin shootings, not for his parents' killings. Del Prado, a former Bexar County prosecutor who says he represents no one connected to the case, told CBS Austin he does not expect Bexar County to seek death, pointing to James's history of serious mental illness; that is his prediction, not inside knowledge, as he states in the analysis.
The decision will most likely belong to an incoming district attorney. The indictment came from Joe Gonzales's office, but Luz Elena Chapa won the Nov. 3 election and takes over in January, and Del Prado notes she told Texas Public Radio during the campaign that death would be sought 'very sparingly,' with a committee reviewing each potential case. Whether Bexar County spends years on a second capital trial for a man already serving life without parole — and whether it asks for the one sentence he does not already have — is now her office's question to answer.
