Jordan Baker Case Summary

On January 16, 2014, Officer Juventino Castro of Houston Police Department shot and killed a 26-year-old, unarmed, black male by the name of Jordan Baker who was riding his bike through a strip mall where Officer Castro was working an extra job through the Department’s “Extra Employment System.” Although Castro was not on duty, he was still expected to enforce all federal, state, and city laws at the strip mall with approval from the Houston Police Department. Jordan Baker, however, was not breaking any laws or engaged in any unlawful conduct. Officer Castro claims that he confronted Jordan Baker because he looked “suspicious,” but Castro’s basis for claiming that Baker looked “suspicious” was based on Baker’s race and the fact that he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. (Estate of Jordan Baker, by and through Administrator, Janet Baker vs. Juventino Castro, The City of Houston, and RPI Management …show more content…
According to the prosecutor on the case, three grand jurors were African-American, one Hispanic, one Asian and seven white. There were eight women and 4 men. They did not want the Harris County District Attorney's Office to release the breakdown of their vote. Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said that, “the grand jury's decision means they found that there was no probable cause to believe a crime was committed. It does not constitute an endorsement of the officer's actions." Anderson also states that at least nine of the twelve grand jurors had to determine there was probable cause that a crime had been committed, and that the jury's decision indicated that the evidence "was simply not there for a criminal charge, much less for a conviction of murder under the 'proof beyond a reasonable doubt' standard."