University of Texas Longhorns head football coach Mack Brown has dismissed reserve wide receiver Brandon Collins from the team after he was charged with two 1st Degree felony charges.
Pflugerville Police arrested Collins Saturday on charges of Aggravated Robbery and Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity.
The junior from Brenham, Texas, is not with the team in Pasadena. He was suspended for the season earlier this year for academic issues. He was still allowed to practice with the team, but not to play in any games.
Coach Mack Brown released this statement on Sunday afternoon: "We're aware of the situation back in Austin with Brandon Collins. We've talked with Brandon and his family and he has been dismissed from the team."
Collins was arrested after an alleged aggravated assault at a Pflugerville McDonald's. Dispatchers got a call at 2:36 p.m. Saturday from a man who said he had been robbed at gunpoint in the McDonald's parking lot. He said he had been waiting there to meet an old friend, Marcus Caruth, 19. The victim told police a black male ran up to him with a gun and demanded money from him. He identified the man as Caruth.
The victim says Caruth ran back to a silver Chrysler Sebring convertible with a black top and Texas license plates and it drove off.
Officers later spotted a vehicle matching the victim's description, stopped the car in the 1800 block of W. Pecan St. and detained the occupants.
The back right passenger was identified as Caruth, the front passenger as Ashton Collins, 25, and the driver as Brandon Collins, 20. Officers found a loaded pistol under the front right seat and a small amount of marijuana and a substance believed to be hashish in the car.
Caruth and Brandon Collins told police they had arranged the meeting with the victim to buy marijuana. Although the victim stated that Caruth was the man who had attacked him and with a gun, both Caruth and Brandon Collins said it was Collins who approached the victim and he, at no time, had a gun. They both said Ashton Collins was the only person who had a gun.
Brandon Collins is now out of jail on $35,000 bond.
Caruth and Ashton Collins both face the same charges as Brandon Collins: Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity and Aggravated Robbery.
It is unclear at this time if Brandon Collins and Ashton Collins are related.
