Overview
- Two violent attempted sexual assaults — one in September 1999 at the Capital Metro Pavilion park-and-ride on Research Boulevard and one in February 2000 at an apartment on Northgate Boulevard — left both victims able to fight off the attacker and prompted forensic evidence collection.
- In April 2000 the Texas Department of Public Safety told Austin police that DNA from both scenes came from the same unknown man, but the profile did not produce a name until TxDPS notified APD in October 2023 that it matched Michael Lance Gamez.
- APD detectives obtained a DNA search warrant for Gamez in February 2024, submitted the sample to the TxDPS crime lab for comparison, and the lab confirmed the match on October 30, 2024, leading to Gamez’s arrest on November 15, 2024 on multiple felony charges.
- Gamez pleaded guilty in May 2026 to one count of attempted aggravated sexual assault and on August 3, 2026 Judge Chantal Eldridge sentenced him to 15 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
- Officials say the case shows how evidence preservation and interagency forensic work can resolve cold cases and provide closure for victims while public records show Gamez had prior violent-offense convictions in Travis County.