AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin Police Department sergeant was suspended earlier this month after an internal affairs investigation into a January incident.
According to a July 12 disciplinary memo from Police Chief Joseph Chacon, obtained by KVUE on July 29, Homicide Sgt. Jesse Sanchez failed to take appropriate action regarding the crime scene of a January homicide.
According to the memo, on Jan. 23, 2022, at 3:07 a.m., someone called the APD about a man who was down in the roadway at an intersection in southeast Austin. Two APD officers, Officer #1 and Officer #2, responded to the call at 3:19 a.m.
Officer #1 responded to the hospital where EMS transported the man before the officers arrived on the scene, the memo states. EMS and fire department officials told Officer #1 where they found the man lying on the ground at the intersection. Officer #1 was also informed that it was unknown if the man was the victim of an assault or if he had been struck by a vehicle.
The victim was pronounced dead at 3:38 a.m. Medical staff told Officer #1 that the victim had hair clenched in his fist and trauma to his head. He had no other trauma on his body, according to medical staff.
The memo states that Officer #2 responded to the intersection where the victim had been located. The area had been washed down by fire crews after the victim was taken to the hospital and prior to Officer #2's arrival.
At approximately 4:05 a.m., Sgt. Sanchez was paged to contact Officer #1 regarding the victim, according to the memo. Sanchez spoke with the officer and told him to release the scene. Sanchez indicated that detectives would not be responding to the scene, according to the memo.
Officer #2 contacted Sanchez at approximately 4:28 a.m. to inform him about the scene. The officer told Sanchez that there was blood on the scene, as well as possible brain matter; there was a van with a broken window; there was a blood splatter that extended toward the van; there was a stick with blood splatter on it; and there was a notebook and other debris on the ground.
Sanchez also told Officer #2 that no detectives would be responding and told the officer to clear the scene, which Officer #2 did shortly after he spoke with Sanchez.
At approximately noon that same day, Sanchez sent detectives to the scene. It was determined that the victim had been killed, and a suspect confessed and was arrested and charged with murder. That case is currently pending, according to the disciplinary memo.
The memo goes on to state that on Feb. 9, Internal Affairs (IA) received an internal complaint memo stating that Sanchez may have failed to properly have a crime scene processed. The complaint requested that IA initiate an investigation into Sanchez's actions.
At the end of the investigation, Sanchez's chain of command, including his commander and the assistant chief over the Homicide Unit, concluded that he failed to take appropriate action in regard to the January crime scene.
Specifically, the memo states that they concluded that Sanchez should have immediately sent the on-call homicide detectives and the Crime Scene Unit to the scene to seek out and secure any potential evidence. They also concluded that Sanchez released the crime scene without having it properly processed, which "could have impacted the prosecution of this case," according to the memo.
In the memo, Chief Chacon wrote that he concurred that Sanchez should be disciplined.
"While I agree that the scene was compromised by the washdown, Sgt. Sanchez’s own statements and actions suggest that he should have known to immediately send the OnCall Detectives and the Crime Scene Unit to the scene," Chacon wrote in the memo.
Sanchez was suspended for five days, from July 13 through July 17.
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