A Travis County jury today convicted Rickey Ellison of murder for fatally shooting an Austin man during a 1981 crime spree that also left another woman dead and a Travis County sheriff’s deputy paralyzed.
Ellison had been sentenced to life in prison for attempted capital murder in 1982 for shooting Deputy Charles Lacey, who later died of his injuries.
Ellison was linked to the killings of Jimmy Milo and Cassandra Jackson shortly after his 1981 arrest but the cases were not prosecuted.
Ellison has recently been regularly eligible for parole, and prosecutors have said they wanted to secure the new murder convictions to make sure he never gets out of prison.
After a weeklong trial, the jury in state District Judge David Crain’s court convicted Ellison today in the killing of Milo, who was shot in the mouth on East 11th Street.
Ellison faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced by Crain later this month. Prosecutor Bryan Case has said that Ellison would face trial in Jackson’s death at a later date.
Ellison, 55, shot Lacey during a traffic stop on U.S. 183.
Case said during opening statements in the case that ballistics testing linked a gun found near Ellison when he was arrested with the shootings of Jackson, Milo and Lacey.
