On June 23, a Texas teenager who fatally stabbed another student received the maximum sentence for his crime.
Caysen Allison, 21, will spend ten years in prison after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jose “Joe” Luis Ramirez Jr.
Judge Wade Faulkner issued the sentence after hearing testimony from school staff and the victim’s relatives in the 478th Judicial District Court.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, Ramirez was only 18 years old when Allison stabbed him on May 3, 2022, during a bathroom brawl at Belton High School.
Allison’s attorney, Zachary Boyd, stated that his client’s actions that day were entirely in self-defense after being forced to fight Ramirez and a group of his friends.
That argument resonated with the jury, which in April declined to convict Allison of murder or manslaughter in favor of the lesser of the three charges, criminally negligent homicide.
Allison faced a six-month to two-year sentence in a state jail until the judge ruled in favor of the prosecution’s motion to amend the jury’s verdict to include a deadly weapon stipulation.
The defense attempted to contest the motion but was ultimately unsuccessful. Allison faced a minimum sentence of two years in prison and a maximum of ten years without parole when he appeared in court this week.
A video of the fatal attack was shown in court during the trial.
A friend of Ramirez was filming the brawl and captured everything leading up to the stabbing.
According to court documents, the video shows Ramirez punching Allison, who then swings back at Ramirez with a knife.
Allison then allegedly cornered Ramirez, and the other teenagers fled the bathroom.
Court documents show that school security cameras captured the aftermath of the stabbing.
According to the arrest affidavit, Ramirez is seen leaving the bathroom and collapsing in the hallway, with blood pooling all around him.
Allison was arrested later that day and admitted to stabbing Ramirez, according to the affidavit.
He is currently in custody, awaiting his prison assignment from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and will be given credit for the 74 days he spent in jail before posting bail.
