UT's Taylor charged with marijuana possession
08:57 PM CDT on Sunday, May 14, 2006
By CHIP BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – The attorney for Texas running back Ramonce Taylor, the all-purpose yardage leader for the national champion Longhorns in 2005, said roughly five pounds of marijuana found in Taylor's car early Sunday didn't belong to Taylor.
The Bell County district attorney's office charged Taylor with state jail felony possession of marijuana Sunday night, pending a final lab analysis for the total weight of the drugs.
If convicted, Taylor could face up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine. If the weight exceeds five pounds, the charge could be upgraded to a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Taylor will be arraigned today, when bail will be set.
Deputies said they found an unfired .40 caliber bullet in the center console of Taylor's vehicle. They said while searching the rear of the vehicle they also found a backpack with the marijuana in it. According to a news release from the Bell County sheriff's department, "further investigation indicates the backpack belongs to Ramonce Taylor."
Taylor's attorney, Buck Harris of Killeen, said Taylor would never have been charged if Taylor hadn't called 911 at about 1:30 a.m. to report the back window of his sports utility vehicle being broken out while leaving a party. Harris said there were three other people in the car with Taylor when authorities found the marijuana in the back of Taylor's Chevrolet Tahoe. The identities of the others weren't immediately known.
"More information will be forthcoming about whom the marijuana belonged to, but it didn't belong to Ramonce," Harris said.
"Rarely do people who have large quantities of controlled substance call the police and or offer the right for them to search their car," Harris said. "Generally the last person you want to see at that point is an officer searching your vehicle. I'm not trying to beg the question, I'm just trying to say, this is not a routine traffic stop."
Taylor totaled 15 touchdowns last season, including a score in Texas' 41-38 victory over USC in the Rose Bowl. He had been excused from the team during the spring semester to work on his academics.
"We are aware of this recent situation and will follow it as the legal system runs its course," coach Mack Brown said in a statement released Sunday.
"At this time, we will not consider reinstating him to the team."
According to the Bell County sheriff's office, deputies received a report of a fight involving as many as 100 people at a pecan farm on Highway 95 in Little River.
Authorities said they were told by witnesses at the scene that Taylor was involved in the fight and had threatened to return with a firearm. Harris said Taylor was the target of racial slurs and left the party without fighting, only to have his car's window broken out.
After deputies responded to Taylor's 911 call, he was handcuffed in the parking lot of the Cefco Convenience Store in Academy, two miles from Little River. Taylor granted the deputies' request to search his vehicle, authorities said, adding that Taylor was totally cooperative.
Harris said Taylor was in Austin on Saturday studying for a final at Texas today when he headed home to see his mother, Ramona Clark, a former state prison guard, for Mother's Day.
Taylor and former Texas cornerback Cedric Griffin were the subjects of a criminal investigation by the Austin Police Department in December. Police looked into whether Taylor and Griffin were involved in an alleged assault in Austin's Sixth Street entertainment district on Dec. 10, 2005. No charges were filed in that case.
