AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin man is accused of killing another man in the city’s downtown area after a fight over a stolen wallet.
After leaving the victim unresponsive on the sidewalk, Robert Batiste, 63, was charged with manslaughter, according to an affidavit.
According to officials, they received a call about a disturbance at an intersection in downtown Austin around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
When officials arrived to the scene, the victim was unconscious and not breathing, according to court documents. Officials wrote that the victim was pronounced dead after arrival to the hospital.
Over the course of interviewing witnesses, police were pointed to Batiste, according to court documents.
In his statement to police, Batiste said the victim had stolen his wallet out of his back pocket. He said in his statement that he was just trying to get it back.
While Batiste did admit to chasing the victim, he said the man fell to the ground on his own as he tried to evade Batiste’s pursuit, according to his statement to police.
However, a witness said Batiste hit the victim in the back of the head before the victim fell to the ground, according to court documents. The witness then saw Batiste continue to assault the victim while they were on the ground.
According to an affidavit, a video showed Batiste applying pressure to the victim’s neck with his knee.
In the video, the victim’s legs “stopped moving and an official observed him taking a deep exhale and become unresponsive,” court documents stated.
While a toxicology report is still pending, an autopsy showed the victim’s cause of death was likely due to “positional asphyxiation related to prone restraint.”
As of Monday, Batiste was held at the Travis County Jail. Bond was not yet set.
(KXAN contributed to this report.)