After considering dramatic in-car video during trial, jury determines Heights man guilty of felony evading arrest

Travis Jarella Foy, 52, was indicted on Oct. 13, 2021, on a third-degree felony charge of evading arrest or detention with a vehicle for an incident that occurred on July 29, 2021. He later was indicted on two felony robbery charges that still are pending and were not considered by this jury, according to the state’s prosecutor on Tuesday.

Foy was being held in the Bell County Jail on Wednesday in lieu of bonds totaling $301,500. He has been held in jail since being booked on the same day as the chase occurred.

A jury of eight men and five women, including one alternate juror, was seated on Monday in the 264th Judicial District Court, over which Judge Paul LePak presides.

After hearing from three law enforcement witnesses and the defendant during the two-day trial, the jury pronounced Foy guilty on Tuesday afternoon. He is set to be sentenced on that charge on Wednesday, according to Bell County court records.

POLICE TESTIMONY

Before resting their case on Tuesday afternoon, the state’s prosecutors presented the local deputy’s in-car video; however, the video does not show the end of the chase because the first officer on scene was a member of the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force and so was not required to wear a body camera or to have an in-car camera.

Still, that officer testified that she saw Foy’s face in the initial minutes of the chase.

“I’m 100% sure ... I saw his face and I saw his vehicle,” said Salado police officer Samantha Mikeska, who at the time was a Bell County Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to the fugitive task force that was serving a warrant on Foy at a location in the 1400 block of Greenwood Avenue in Killeen.

Still, defense attorney Bobby Barina asked if she could have used her cellphone to show who exited the vehicle when the chase ended in order to identify the person who had been behind the wheel.

“You are trained to meticulously collect evidence,” he said.

Mikeska said that neither body cameras nor in-car cameras were allowed at that time.

The jury also heard testimony from another deputy involved in the high-speed chase. Deputy Jeffrey McKenzie said he was assigned to be in one of the marked vehicles to accompany the U.S. Marshals, who were driving unmarked, undercover vehicles.

“They wanted marked vehicles with lights and sirens there so that the person knew it was the police,” McKenzie said, during his testimony on Tuesday.

The video shown in court shows that as soon as police activated their lights and sirens, the white car speeds away, leading to a car chase reaching speeds of 80 miles per hour. The car can be seen blowing through stop signs and lights as vehicles in oncoming lanes swerved out of its way.

Police lost sight of the vehicle at one point.

“It looked like it was going to collide head-on with a truck, so we backed off,” McKenzie said. “The vehicle turned and we lost it at that point. We have to be safe and sometimes that creates a gap and that’s what happened this time.”

The chase lasted at least eight minutes, according to the video shown in court on Tuesday.

“It made a huge circle all through Killeen,” McKenzie said.

The chase ended when Foy drove into a cul-de-sac and fled on foot, at which time he was apprehended by Mikeska, according to court testimony on Tuesday.

At a later time, an aggravated robbery and a robbery charge will be decided in the Bell County courts.

In the first alleged incident, Foy is accused of using a knife to threaten a man and to steal his vehicle at a gas station in the 2000 block of Trimmier Road on Oct. 25, 2020. Police said the man was injured when his foot dragged the pavement as he tried to stop Foy from driving off.

In another alleged incident, on June 11, 2021, Foy is accused of beating and injuring a woman during a robbery at a game room in the 1300 block of Rancier Avenue.