The search for missing Texas State University student Jason Landry has now become the backdrop to a Caldwell County defamation judgment involving one of the volunteer effort’s publicly identified organizers. On June 29, 2026, Judge Amanda S. Montgomery signed an agreed judgment in Ashley Michelle Martinez v. James Marcus West, holding James Marcus “Jim” West liable for defaming Martinez, who said she also participated in Landry-related investigative discussions.

The dispute grew from statements West allegedly made within the Landry search community, including accusations that Martinez fabricated evidence, stole approximately $20,000 in search equipment and caused law-enforcement agencies to threaten to stop cooperating with the volunteer team. The court awarded Martinez nominal damages of $1 and ordered each party to bear its own attorney’s fees and court costs. Although the judgment does not resolve any part of Landry’s disappearance, it formally establishes liability in a reputational battle that unfolded within the volunteer and online network built around the still-unsolved case.

A Judgment by Agreement, Not a Jury Verdict

An agreed motion filed June 26, states that Martinez brought the original case on November 25, 2025, and that the parties agreed to entry of judgment on June 3, 2026. Montgomery signed the requested order three days after the motion was filed.

Texas courts treat an agreed judgment according to the words the parties selected, much as they would interpret a contract, the Texas Supreme Court has explained.

The Accusations Behind the Lawsuit

Martinez’s amended petition alleged that West contacted a new member of a Jason Landry Facebook group by private message at about 10:24 p.m. on December 14, 2024. According to the pleading, West accused Martinez of fabricating evidence to frame an unnamed Lockhart couple for an unspecified double homicide. She further alleged that he invoked the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office, the Luling and San Marcos police departments, the Texas Rangers and the FBI while claiming that every agency had warned the volunteer team it would lose cooperation if it worked with her.

The lawsuit also described a second Messenger conversation that a third party allegedly showed Martinez on May 10, 2025. In that exchange, Martinez said, West accused her of stealing approximately $20,000 in search equipment and repeated the assertion that law-enforcement agencies would stop working with the team if she became involved.

From Private Messages to a Public Facebook Fight

Martinez alleged that the dispute became more public on September 2, 2025, when an anonymous account posted comments in a Facebook group called “Talk of Jason Landry.” Her pleading said the comments repeated themes that she was dishonest, had stolen equipment and could not work with the volunteer search team or law enforcement. The petition described the language as materially identical to statements attributed to West.

Martinez said she asked for a retraction through a mutual acquaintance that same day and then served West with a certified written demand on September 10. Her lawsuit alleged that he refused to retract or correct the statements before she filed suit. 

A Personal History Behind the Public Dispute

The amended petition says Martinez and West had once been engaged and that their relationship ended in 2022. Martinez alleged that, during that relationship, West learned about her education, investigative work, professional contacts and involvement in discussions surrounding missing-person cases. She claimed that history gave him reason to know the accusations were false and reason to understand the professional harm they could cause. The petition also says Martinez began hearing in 2022 that people in the missing-person community were spreading rumors about her and that West acknowledged some sources were hostile or unreliable. 

Martinez described herself in the lawsuit as a San Marcos resident, a licensed Texas private investigator and an undergraduate studying criminal justice and psychology. She said she had occasionally forwarded leads to the Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit and participated in a private Facebook group discussing the Landry case.

Martinez initially filed the case without a lawyer, according to the amended petition. By the agreed-judgment stage, Solomon G. Norred represented her, while Lena Cervera of The Bowen Law Firm represented West.

West’s Public Role in the Search for Jason Landry

Outside reporting gives West a more visible public profile in the Landry search. In December 2023, FOX 7 Austin identified him as an organizer of the Jason Landry Search Team and reported that about 70 volunteers had participated in roughly a dozen searches during the preceding year. West told the station that he viewed Landry’s disappearance through the eyes of a parent and felt unable to walk away. A 2025 Texas Monthly investigation described West as a Houston-area software executive and a co-leader of the volunteer effort. 

The Missing-Person Case at the Center of the Community

Jason Landry was 21, when he left his Texas State University apartment in San Marcos on December 13, 2020, intending to drive to his family’s home in Missouri City. His crashed car was found shortly after midnight on rural Salt Flat Road near Luling, with its lights on and keys in the ignition, while clothing and other possessions were recovered away from the vehicle. Landry himself was not found, and the case generated repeated official and volunteer searches across difficult terrain. The Caldwell County District Attorney and Sheriff asked the Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit to assist in February 2022. The Attorney General’s official case update said the evidence supported a single-vehicle crash and disclosed no electronic evidence that Landry planned to meet anyone in Luling or take part in a narcotics transaction.

By the third anniversary, the state said investigators had devoted hundreds of hours to testing, warrants, interviews and evidence review. A November 2023 roundtable that included the FBI, Texas Rangers, search specialists and local officials concluded that all credible leads and investigative steps identified at that point had been thoroughly pursued, according to a second Attorney General statement. Volunteer teams nevertheless continued returning to the area, supplementing rather than replacing the official investigation. In the latest public reporting located for this story, People reported in January 2026 that Landry remained missing, the case was active and a $20,000 reward was available.

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