'Give me the death penalty': Jury took JUST 25 minutes to find Robert Solis guilty of killing deputy
HOUSTON, TEXAS: Robert Solis, who was being tried for the capital murder of Harris County deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal during a traffic stop in September 2019, was found guilty on October 17. After the jury reportedly found him guilty as charged within 25 minutes, Solis did not have a visible reaction, but he said, "Since you believe I’m guilty of capital murder, I believe you should give me the death penalty."
According to his plea, he did not intentionally shoot the deputy, however, prosecutors said that since Solis was a fugitive of a parole violation, he shot the deputy because he did not want to go to prison. The deputy was heading back to his patrol vehicle when he was shot in the head, according to the prosecutors.
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According to KTRK, Solis while representing and defending himself said, "Because of the position that I had the weapon, I lost control of it...in trying to recover the weapon, I accidentally pulled the trigger and it discharged." KPRC reported about Solis' defense as he said, "I stand before you an innocent man until you all go back there and deliberate and determine whether or not the state has met its burden and whether I intentionally and knowingly, a conscious objective, shot this deputy."
Footage of deputy Dhaliwal's body cam, where Solis was seen jumping out of his car and running to the deputy's patrol car, was shown in the courtroom. He then ordered him to put his hands up and not to move, and later shot him in the head from point-blank range.
Prosecutor Lauren Bard said, "This is an act. This is a choice. This is intent, and he comes running up to that man with a gun and he shoves him up against the car." Prosecutor Katie Warren then added, "No one gets more argumentative or defensive than a narcissist that's being accused of something he definitely did."
An adamant Solis said in his statement, "I believe I will be able to show that I had no intention of killing this man," but after the guilty verdict said, "Since you believe I’m guilty of capital murder, I believe you should give me the death penalty." He however kept denying his intent to murder and said that it was a rather unfortunate situation. "It happened. I can’t change it. Was that my intent? My objective? Absolutely not."
In the opening statement of the trial, prosecutor Warren told the jurors, "We know what were asking you to do, we also know that the evidence supports it and that leaving him anywhere other than death row is too great a risk."