| On November 8, 2018, police in San Antonio, Texas were summoned to an apartment complex by an anonymous caller reporting that a Black man who did not live there was present.
When police arrived, they located 20-year-old Devin Lynn. Lynn, who was homeless, was searched, handcuffed, and charged with trespassing.
Lynn spent a week in the Bexar County Jail before he was released on a bond secured by his signature. When he failed to appear in court on the trespassing charge, he was arrested again. He spent another week in jail before he appeared in Bexar County Criminal District Court. On March 29, 2019, he pled guilty to criminal trespass of a building. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, but was released immediately after being given credit for the time he had already spent in custody.
In October 2020, Haven for Hope, an organization that was attempting to find stable housing for Lynn, approached the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. The matter was referred to Matthew Howard, the director of the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU). The CIU reviewed the prosecution’s file and discovered that police had failed to make contact with the complainant listed in the trespassing case. The complainant did not know that Lynn was facing criminal prosecution.
In Texas, a person commits the misdemeanor offense of criminal trespass if the person enters or remains on or in property of another without effective consent and the person had notice that the entry was forbidden or received notice to depart but failed to do so. The CIU also discovered that Lynn did not receive a notice to depart and then fail to do so. Instead, police had immediately arrested Lynn after locating him.
The CIU then moved to appoint a defense attorney to represent Lynn. Judge Alfredo Ximenez appointed the Bexar County Public Defender’s Office to defend Lynn. On October 28, 2020, his defense lawyer, Michael Young, filed an application for a post-conviction writ of habeas corpus seeking to overturn the trespassing conviction.
The CIU and Young entered into agreed findings of fact and conclusions of law requesting that Lynn’s conviction be vacated.
On November 2, 2020, Judge Ximenez vacated Lynn’s conviction.
On November 17, 2020, the prosecution filed a motion to dismiss the case. The motion was granted on November 19, 2020.
– Maurice Possley
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