By Brian Rogers
Houston Chronicle
PASADENA, Texas — A Harris County jury Monday morning has found a former Pasadena police officer not guilty for shooting a 20-year-old man in the face during a 2011 traffic stop captured on video.
The officer, Michael T. Martin, had faced a maximum of a year in jail if convicted of the class A misdemeanor of official oppression.
Prosecutors had implored jurors on Friday to watch video footage from two police dash cams and a convenience store’s surveillance camera. They said the video shows inconsistencies between Martin’s story and what appears to have happened about 2 a.m. on June 22, 2011.
Martin admitted to shooting Victor A. Hernandez after pulling him over for a DWI stop.
The former officer told jurors he could not see Hernandez’s left arm and thought he was reaching for a weapon when he heard a metallic clanking through the driver’s door.
Shown to the jury several times during Martin’s four-day trial, the footage captured Hernandez being pulled over in a lighted parking lot by Martin and seconds later fleeing the scene as gunshots ring out, apparently after he was shot.
Prosecutors said the footage shows Hernandez’s left arm was on the door’s arm rest with his hand on his face.
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