Timothy Huff, one of two people charged in the death of Fort Worth officer Garrett Hull, was found guilty of capital murder Monday morning.
Hull was killed during a gun battle in 2018 during an investigation into a string of robberies.
A Tarrant County jury delivered a unanimous verdict against Huff. With a capital murder conviction, Huff will face either life in prison or death. The Tarrant County DA said they are seeking the death penalty in the case.
The punishment phase of the trial resumed Monday afternoon with two witnesses, including a FWPD officer who worked closely with Hull in the department's elite intelligence unit.
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Officer Ryan Navarro told jurors, as a trained EMS medic, he tended to Hull's wounds on scene and rode with him to the hospital, but there was little he could do.
"You lose the guy that was the glue that sticks you together," Navarro told jurors. He’s the best cop I’ve ever known.”
The murder trial was to start May 31, but was delayed after Huff ingested a razor blade. Testimony began a week later but was again delayed last week after an attorney in the case got sick.
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Investigators suspected Huff, Dacion Steptoe and Samuel Mayfield were responsible for 17 robberies in the area and that they had been targeting Latino bars in and around Fort Worth under the belief that Latino victims would be less likely to report a robbery to authorities.
Joel Fitzgerald, who was chief of police in Fort Worth at the time, said a group of undercover and uniform officers identified the three men as suspects and were watching them as they entered Los Vaqueros Sports Bar on Sept. 14, 2018.
Fitzgerald added then that the officers were wary of endangering bystanders and waited for the three men to leave the bar before confronting them. When the men were outside and around the corner police tried to arrest them and that's when the gun battle began.
Hull was shot in the head in the exchange. Instead of waiting for an ambulance, officers decided to rush Hull to the hospital in a police car.
Dacion Steptoe, the man believed to have fired the shot that killed Hull, was killed in the shootout with police. In the days after the shooting NBC 5 learned Steptoe had been released from prison early and wasn’t sent back when he was arrested twice earlier in the year -- even though he was on parole, according to Tarrant County court records.
Mayfield is also charged with capital murder but has not yet gone to trial.
