“In the fight for his life”: Defense says Caysen Allison acted in self-defense when he fatally stabbed Joe Ramirez at Belton High

KWTX ^

[TigerClaws]

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - The highly-anticipated trial of Caysen Allison, 21, charged with murder in the killing of Joe Ramirez at Belton High School back in May 2022, began on April 14, 2025, in a 146th District Court packed with families, friends, witnesses and many others who have been waiting three years to learn Allison’s fate.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the details mentioned below could be graphic to some readers.

Allison has been out on bond since July of 2022 after a judge dropped his $1-million bond down to $175,000. He has been on house arrest ever since.

An arrest affidavit alleges Allison waived his rights against self incrimination and admitted to detectives he fatally stabbed Jose Luis Ramirez Jr., 18, during a fight in a school restroom.

State prosecutors on Monday told the jury Allison intentionally cut and stabbed Ramirez. The defense, however, implied its client acted in self-defense.

Allison “was in the fight for his life when he was jumped by five friends,” Defense Attorney Zachary Boyd told the jury.

The jury also heard from five state witnesses, including a 911 record custodian, the Belton ISD Director of Safety and Security, two teachers who witnessed the aftermath of the stabbing and the school nurse.

Prosecutors also played five 911 calls placed by two staff members, two students and a parent. In one of the calls, a girl identified Allison, claiming she saw him running through the parking lot with a bloody nose.

Jurors also watched security footage from several cameras showing Ramirez and three others walking into a restroom. Allison and another boy walk in shortly thereafter.

Five boys, including Ramirez, then ran out of the restroom and split up. Allison is seen running out of the restroom shortly thereafter.

Jurors also watched footage of Ramirez running down the main hallway, bleeding onto the floor and then collapsing. Blood immediately began to pool as teachers and staff surrounded him.

Many of Ramirez’s friends and relatives were in tears as they watched the footage.

One witness, the first to render aid to Ramirez, testified that the victim’s “breathing was rapid, shallow and appeared as if he had a punctured lung.”

The school nurse said they gasped when she cut open Ramirez’s shirt and they found the gaping wound across his left chest.

The nurse further testified that a student who had been in the bathroom was brought to the nurse’s office and was on the phone when his mother was saying, “Caysen stabbed Joe.”

The trial resumed at 9 a.mn. on April 14.

[sport]

He probably plays football.

[PAR35]

Obviously he hasn’t heard that pulling a knife on someone without a knife isn’t self-defense.

5 against 1 isn't a fair fight. And yes, with those odds, a knife (or a gun) might well be self defense.

[sport]

As Yakoff Smirnoff used to say, “What a Country!”

[rlmorel]

I know...up above, I acknowleged that reality early on in the thread. It was my mistake (again) reading the story and thinking it was of the murdering stabbing bastard that just killed a teenager down in Texas. Thatis NOT "self-defense".

As you said, in the case of the 5-on-one, that is a different thing.

I had jumped in without reading the story...I made the mistake of coming directly from another thread about the recent murder.

And as I said, I had the unfortunate experience of being assaulted by a group of people, so I have experience with that dynamic first hand.

I was stationed in Cecil Field back in the Seventies when I was in the service and walking back from the chow hall one night in between the barracks, and I felt a very sharp, hard kick in the ass. I whirled around to see a black guy grinning at me, and when I asked why he had kicked me, he said "I don't like your hat" (referring to my squadron hat for the VA-46 Clansmen)

I said, "That is too damn bad because you and I are going to have at it" and as I removed my glasses, four other black guys stepped around the corner. They encircled me as I stepped backwards, and not knowing what else to do, I assumed a martial arts pose hoping to buy a few seconds of time with their uncertainty. It worked as one of them said "Ah, he knows karate..." but that only lasted a few seconds until one lunged at me, I took a swing and down I went.

They were kicking the crap out of me, so I balled up and protected my face and vitals as best I could. They were trying to kick me in the nuts and the face, but fortunately for me, they smelled like they had been drinking, and landed more kicks on each other's legs and ankles than they did on me.

It seemed like it went on for five minutes, but I suppose it may have been only 15 or 30 seconds, at which point I saw an opening in their circle, bolted up and shot through it in one motion with all five of them running after me. I jumped on the concrete steps into the barracks, but knew if I grabbed the door to open it, they would be on me, so I grabbed a swab that was sitting in a bucket there and began jabbing and swinging it at them. I think I had been screaming "HELP!" over and over again at the top of my lungs throughout the entire time, but I don't really remember doing it.

They finally melted away, and I went across the street to the hangar and found my boss, who was on duty, AD1 Woods. When I told him what happened, he said: "Do you want to get together a bunch of our squadron mates and go find them?"

That was Woods. A good man. While I searched the face of every black guy I passed on that base for months, I simply could not remember the faces. But that simple willingness of Woods to take my side and stand with me against a bunch of black thugs kept me, I think from developing any long-term hatred of blacks because of it. He'll never know, but I have always held out hope to somehow meet him again and thank him in some way.

An amusing side-note, at least for me, was that for years, I could never understand why someone would take issue with me being in a specific squadron, and attacking me for wearing a squadron hat. That wasn't really a "thing", that kind of rivalry, at least not in that sense of a rivalry. It was only in the last ten years or so that the lightbulb went on in my head-the people who attacked me were too illiterate or stupid to understand "Clansmen" was a Scottish heritage reference, not a post-civil war reconstruction terrorist organization such as the "Klansmen".

Granted, they were probably just malicious and looking for someone to beat up, and I was the polar bear they went hunting for, but it did make me grin to realize all these years that obvious fact had escaped me.

[Tired of Taxes]

There’s another article (at the link in post #37 above) with more details. These two students knew each other, and they’d argued with each other previously.

Although the defense attorney says the stabber was jumped by a group of five, the cell phone video from inside the restroom reportedly shows the victim taking a swing at the stabber, and then the stabber pulling out a knife. A scream is heard, and everyone runs.

(At least, that’s what the article says.)

So, this case does seem similar to the stabbing at the track meet. He was released on bond, and he has been on house arrest for three years awaiting trial.