56 people in Harris County sentenced to life in prison in 2024

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - There were 56 people sentenced to life in prison in 2024 in Harris County. There were also 37 people who were sentenced to more than 51 years. 

Of the combined 93 cases, 82 were felony cases and the other 11 were capital cases. According to the district attorney's office, 55 cases were decided by a jury, 35 people took plea deals and three cases were decided by the presiding judge.

In 2023, there were 47 life sentences and 29 sentences of more than 51 years. 

Here is the information for many of the 2024 cases from the Harris County Criminal District Attorney's Office. 

Harris County Life Sentences for 2024

David Spates, 61

On Jan. 22, 2024, David Spates, 61, of Houston, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted by a jury of capital murder for brutally killing 28-year-old Kayla Lary on June 24, 2020. Lary was tied up, with a garbage bag over her head, and then beaten with a hammer, stomped on and stabbed until she was dead, according to Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. A witness told police that as Lary was being killed, she screamed that she just wanted to go home to be with her baby. After the murder, Lary’s car was driven to the woods where it was abandoned and her body was dumped in the San Jacinto River. Her decomposed remains were found about 10 days later, making it difficult to determine exactly how she died. However, after hearing from witnesses during a seven-day trial, a Harris County jury convicted Spates after deliberating for just 19 minutes.

Quinnton R. Allen, 30

On Feb. 2, 2024, Quinnton R. Allen, 30, was sentenced to life by the Harris County jury for the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Luis Espinoza on June 18, 2022. The shooting happened in Houston's Near Northside neighborhood. Espinoza was driving a white Jeep Cherokee by a convenience store near the intersection of Fairbanks and Gano before noon that day. Allen was seen on surveillance video at the store and walking onto the street in front of Espinoza’s vehicle. Allen knew Espinoza and started talking to him as he walked in front of the Cherokee. He approached Espinoza’s driver’s side window and spoke to him for about two minutes. Then, Allen pulled a semi-automatic 9mm pistol out of his backpack and fired seven shots, hitting Espinoza six times. The trial took four days. The jury had a sentence on the day he was found guilty. 

Santos Perfecto Melendez-Granados, 35

Santos Perfecto Melendez-Granados, 35, of Houston was sentenced to life in prison on Feb. 8, 2024 for shooting his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in the back with a shotgun. 45-year-old Carlos Pineda died on Sept. 23, 2021 in an apartment complex parking lot. Pineda and his girlfriend, who had recently broken up with Melendez-Granados, were walking to her apartment complex dumpster around 10 p.m., when she pointed out a black Toyota Tundra with paper tags in the parking lot that she recognized as belonging to her ex-boyfriend. As they got closer, she identified Melendez-Granados as the driver and told Pineda they should leave. But as Pineda walked toward the truck, Melendez-Granados pulled up to him and shot him twice in the back with a shotgun, then drove away. After a two-day search, a task force found Melendez-Granados and tried to pull him over. He evaded officers in the vehicle then ran off, but was quickly apprehended. His ex-girlfriend testified that she had only lived in the apartment complex for two months and that she didn’t know how Melendez-Granados had found her. However, she stated that she found a GPS device on her vehicle after the murder that she believes he placed there to track her.

Ronnie Davontay Scott, 29

Ronnie Davontay Scott, 29, gunned down a 24-year-old Georgia man during a premeditated scheme to steal his car and valuables in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024. Scott pleaded guilty to murder on Monday in exchange for a life sentence for killing 24-year-old Donnie Glover at about 12:50 a.m. on February 23, 2021. He will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years. Glover had recently graduated from college and moved to Houston from Georgia in October 2020. Text messages show that he was trying to begin a romantic relationship with a 21-year-old woman. However, the woman was working with Scott to lure the victim to a secluded area behind an apartment complex to rob him of his money and take his new orange Dodge Charger. Just before he was killed, Glover called 911 to report that he was being followed by people trying to steal his vehicle outside an apartment complex in the 4000 block of Linkwood Drive. Investigators said later that the 911 dispatcher heard gunshots and when Houston Police Department officers arrived, they found Glover’s body towards the back of the complex. The day after the death, Scott and the woman were joyriding in Glover's vehicle, according to the D.A.

Demontae Lavon Williams, 28

Demontae Lavon Williams, 28, was convicted of capital murder by a Harris County jury after a four-day trial for killing Jailyn Page, 19, Bryce Lee Goddard, 21, and Christopher Donshae Jackson, 22, on October 20, 2020. On Feb. 16, 2024, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Williams and another man, whose case is still pending, were able to bypass security and take guns into the club in the 2100 block of Chenevert where they ran into several men they knew from the neighborhood. Members of the other group began yelling at Williams and the other man. When the argument escalated, Williams and the other man pulled their handguns and shot Page and Goddard. Jackson was not connected to the fight but was shot and killed by a stray bullet. Jurors rejected Williams’ claims of self-defense after hearing that he and his co-defendant snuck their guns into the club expecting a fight and could have walked out when the argument started instead of opening fire.

Kentrell Obrien Brumfield, 36

Kentrell Obrien Brumfield, 36, of Louisiana, broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment around10 p.m. on June 29, 2022, and shot her and her neighbor as they were having dinner, killing the neighbor. He was sentenced on Feb. 21, 2024, to life in prison. Brumfield moved to Houston from the north Louisiana town of Farmerville and had been in a dating relationship with a Houston woman. He was charged in June 2022 with robbing and choking her. Less than a month later, he broke into her apartment and shot her and killed the neighbor. He was arrested the next morning in Mississippi after leading law enforcement officers on a chase. As he finally pulled over, Brumfield began shooting at the police officers. Police were able to take him into custody and no one was injured. A Harris County jury took just 16 minutes of deliberations to convict Brumfield of murder in the four-day trial. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced him to life in prison.

Roger Allan Smith, 55

Roger Allan Smith, 55, of Crosby, repeatedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old child beginning in 2017, was sentenced to life in prison by a Harris County jury on Friday, Feb. 23. He was convicted of continuous sexual assault of a child for repeatedly abusing a child who was part of his extended family while other family members were out of the home or asleep. Smith was familiar with the security system in the home and turned off cameras that would have caught the abuse as it happened. The child’s outcry included a plea to another family member to move in with them because of what was happening. That adult alerted the Deer Park Police Department. The case was referred to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies investigated and arrested Smith.

Marcus Kenneth Cox-Davis, 24

Marcus Kenneth Cox-Davis, 24, was convicted of capital murder for shooting 32-year-old Donna Peña, a mother of two who was killed while working at a gas station in northwest Harris County on March 8, 2019. He was sentenced in Feb. 2024 to life in prison for murder. Harris County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene and collected evidence, including surveillance video of the crime. The man who shot Peña was seen on video wearing a blue hoodie, which police found in the subdivision behind the gas station. DNA taken from the hoodie matched a DNA sample from Cox-Davis. Cox-Davis pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for life in prison. As part of the agreement, he cannot appeal his conviction or the prison sentence. He must serve at least 30 years in prison before he will be eligible for parole.

Dewayne Batiste, 43

The mastermind who orchestrated a fatal ambush that killed an 11-year-old boy and the boy’s stepfather in their driveway in 2020 was sentenced to life in prison without parole on March 9, 2024. Dewayne Batiste, 43, was convicted of capital murder for his role in killing 11-year-old Dominic Sumicek and his 41-year-old stepfather, Menuell Solomon, as the two sat in Solomon’s car outside their home on October 26, 2020. Prosecutors believe Solomon was the victim of an attempted robbery by Batiste a week before, and believe Batiste arranged to have Solomon killed to escape any accountability for the attempted armed robbery. Batiste and a documented gang member named Desmond Hawkins waited for three hours in parked cars for Solomon to come home. He arrived with his stepson. Hawkins emerged from a hole cut in the chain link fence at the apartment complex, ran to the car, shot the 11-year-old twice, and then shot Solomon four times, killing them both. Hawkins then ran back to his car and he and Batiste drove off in separate vehicles. The entire attack took 49 seconds. Hawkins, who was on bond for a different capital murder, was wearing a GPS monitor and was soon arrested for the double murder by detectives with the Houston Police Department. Hawkins, the triggerman, was convicted of capital murder in September 2023, and was also sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Cameron Michael Davis, 32

Cameron Michael Davis, 32, of Humble, was sentenced to life in prison on April 5, 2024, after a Harris County jury found him guilty of murder for killing his girlfriend, 27-year-old Ryniscia Sanford, around noon on Sept. 23, 2021. Sanford, the victim, was a passenger in Davis’ car when the two apparently got into an argument near an apartment complex on Cypress Station Drive in north Harris County. Surveillance video shows Sanford quickly getting out of the car and running away. Davis can be seen getting out of his car with a semi-automatic pistol with an extended clip and chasing Sanford. He chased her for about 20 minutes and when he finally caught her, she can be seen trying to calm him down. After a few minutes, she ran away again, and he shot her in the back. As she lay on the ground, he approached her, aimed and fired, shooting her six times in the back of the head. Davis ran away and hid in Louisiana for more than a year. An anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers of Houston alerted police to his location, and he was arrested in December 2022. Davis must serve at least 30 years in prison before he will be eligible for parole.

Scottie Dewayne Nelson, 49

Scottie Dewayne Nelson, 49, of Houston, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 5, 2024, for raping a 15-year-old boy on Sept. 11, 2022. It was the second time that Nelson was convicted of raping a child. Nelson was on the porch outside his home in north Houston when the teen walked by. Nelson called out to the boy to come talk to him and then lured the boy into his home. The victim testified that once they were inside, Nelson pulled a silver handgun and forced the boy to have sex. He also threatened the teen with violence if he told anybody what happened. The victim’s mother was looking for the boy when he got home, and she called the police. Officers with the Houston Police Department responded to the call, investigated what happened and later arrested Nelson. In 2010, Nelson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a 6-year-old boy.

Brian Ward Coulter, 34

Brian Ward Coulter, 34, of Houston, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole on April 15, 2024, for killing his 8-year-old stepson, Kendrick Lee, in 2020, at their Houston apartment. Coulter was arrested in 2021 after he and his wife had moved to a different apartment but left the body to decompose in their former apartment, where Coulter’s wife’s other young children lived. Kendrick’s body, covered with a blue blanket, lay in the apartment for over a year while his siblings were forced to stay there as the body decomposed. Two siblings testified during the trial that they saw Coulter repeatedly beat Kendrick when he was alive. The boy died in late 2020 after Coulter beat him severely. Then Coulter covered the body, and he and his wife moved to a different apartment while the boy’s siblings were forced to stay behind. A year later, one of the siblings called police about the situation. Only the boy’s skeletal remains were found when police arrived at the home in October 2021. Coulter’s wife, Gloria Williams, took a plea deal and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. 

MORE: Brian Coulter trial: New details revealed in 8-year-old's murder case

Ethan Caleb Thomas, 22

Ethan Caleb Thomas, 22, of Houston, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, for the 2022 killing of a truck driver during an armed robbery. Thomas pleaded guilty to murder in the death of 50-year-old Jose Canales on Feb. 11, 2022. Canales was a parking lot sweeping truck driver and was shot while picking up debris in a parking lot in the 19500 block of Tomball Parkway. Thomas and another man drove into the lot. Surveillance footage showed they waited for Canales to get out of the truck and then confronted him. As Thomas argued with Canales, the other suspect went to his truck and took Canales’ phone and other belongings. Thomas assaulted Canales and shot him once. The two men left in the SUV while Canales went back to his truck, but was unable to call anyone since his phone was stolen. Canales was found dead by a witness hours later. A jury was selected for Thomas to go to trial on a charge of capital murder for robbing and killing Canales. If convicted, he would have been automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. Instead, Thomas agreed to plead guilty to murder in exchange for a life sentence. As part of the plea agreement, he cannot appeal the conviction or the sentence. He will become eligible for parole after 30 years in prison.

Jerome Moore, 25

A Houston man was sentenced on May 6, 2024, to life in prison for a crime spree that included six armed robberies in the Galleria area and a 2016 shooting that killed three people. Jerome Moore, 25, was sentenced after a seven-day trial. Moore opted to have his sentence determined by a judge instead of the jury that convicted him. In order for the judge to make a decision, prosecutors presented evidence in court about all of Moore’s armed robberies. Prosecutors were also able to show that he shot and killed three people at a block party in Houston’s Fourth Ward on the Fourth of July in 2016. Moore — who is a documented gang member — targeted a man at an outdoor party that he believed was a member of a rival gang. Moore opened fire on the people at the street party just as the Freedom Over Texas celebration happened just blocks away. Moore killed three men and wounded two other people, including a 10-year-old boy. Moore must serve at least 30 years in prison before he will become eligible for parole.

Oscar Ariel Sierra, 19

Oscar Ariel Sierra, 19, of Houston, pleaded guilty to murder on May 14, 2024, and was sentenced to life in prison for killing a transgender woman in east Houston on July 9, 2022. Sierra admitted he fatally shot 39-year-old Marisela Castro, a transgender woman. He met her online and lured her to a meeting in order to rob her. After they met, she was driving him around in her sedan, including stopping at a fast-food drive-thru. After picking up food and drinks, they were driving on a dark street just south of Herman Brown Park, and she stopped the car. Surveillance video from nearby cameras showed that she got out of the car while Sierra got out of the passenger side with a gun. He then walked behind her to the middle of the street and shot her in the back of the head, killing her and leaving her body there. Sierra then got back in the victim’s car and drove away. Police found the car about two blocks away. Castro’s phone and purse were missing. Sierra was 17 years old at the time of the shooting. If convicted of capital murder, the juvenile would have been eligible for parole after 40 years. By pleading guilty to murder, Sierra will be eligible for parole after 30 years, but he cannot appeal the conviction or the sentence.

Alexander Salvador Ordonez, 22

The first of two brothers accused of a days-long crime spree in 2021 that left one man dead and another injured was sentenced on June 6, 2024, to life in prison. Alexander Salvador Ordonez, 22, was sentenced to life in prison by a judge after a five-day trial in which a jury convicted him of murder for killing 19-year-old Cameron B. Stevens at a Cypress Station apartment complex on Feb. 6, 2021. Stevens did not know Ordonez or his younger brother, Kevin Ordonez, but was trying to buy a handgun from them, and agreed to meet them late at night at the well-lit apartment complex. When the deal fell through, Stevens started walking away from the Ordonez brothers, who were in a white 2012 Chevy Malibu. The brothers slowly rolled up to Stevens, who was unarmed as he walked back to his apartment, fired at him and hit him once in the head, killing him. Investigators learned the brothers were involved in an armed robbery the day before with a man being shot in the leg. The day after the murder, the brothers were involved in another armed robbery outside an auto-parts store. Several charges, including murder, are pending against 20-year-old Kevin Ordonez for his role in the crime spree. He is scheduled for trial in October.

Jourdan Ellison, 22

A 22-year-old Houston man was sentenced on July 25, 2024, to life in prison after being convicted of capital murder for killing an acquaintance while robbing him at his apartment. Jourdan Ellison was convicted of capital murder for killing a rapper he knew, 19-year-old Christian Alexander Lezama, on Sept. 4, 2019. Ellison, who was 17 at the time, and two other men worked together to rob Lezama at his apartment building in the 1800 block of St. Joseph Parkway in downtown Houston. Lezama was at home playing video games with three friends and Ellison. During a break in the game, Ellison pulled a gun on Lezama and the other men. He also let two other men into the apartment to help him with the robbery. Ellison demanded Lezama’s money, necklace and diamond-encrusted dental grill. The robbery quickly escalated into a shouting match and then a violent altercation with Ellison and his accomplices pistol-whipping Lezama and another man at the apartment. Ellison then shot and killed Lezama and fled with his accomplices. Because Ellison was 17 at the time of the murder, he will be eligible for parole after 40 years under Texas law. However, both of Ellison’s accomplices, Deric Williams, 26, and Michael Sykes, 24, both face life in prison without parole because they were older than 17 at the time of the shooting.

Manuel Enrique Arana Jr., 42

Manuel Enrique Arana Jr., 42, a registered sex offender, was sentenced to life in prison without parole on August 12, 2024, for molesting a child. During the four-day trial, jurors heard how Arana repeatedly sexually assaulted a young girl for more than a year, beginning when she was 7 years old. Arana has a long criminal history of hurting women and girls. In 2013, Arana pleaded guilty to assaulting a female family member in a domestic violence situation. Before that, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old when he was 17 years old in 1999. After admitting his guilt, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. When he was released, Arana was mandated to register as a sex offender but did not comply and spent time behind bars for that in 2009.

Jarell Carelone Barrows, 22

Jarell Carelone Barrows, 22, of Houston, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for robbing and killing a recent graduate of Lone Star College who owned his own business repairing cellphones. Barrows was convicted of capital murder on August 15, 2024, for shooting 22-year-old Emmanuel Browne during a daytime robbery around 1:10 p.m. on April 29, 2021. On the day of the murder, Barrows and another man, James Duplechain, contacted the victim to come to an apartment complex in Houston’s South Side neighborhood to fix a phone. Browne, whose parents are from Liberia, was brought to America when he was a 10-year-old. As a teenager, he broke his phone and taught himself how to fix it. He used that knowledge to build a business by offering mobile repairs. To try to stay safe, Browne worked in his car instead of going into the homes of strangers. When he met up with Barrows and Duplechain, surveillance video shows that Browne was in the driver’s seat of his car with his window down trying to fix one of their phones. Barrows and Duplechain were standing outside the car, and Barrows pulled a gun and put it to Browne’s head. Barrows then opened the driver’s-side door, keeping the gun to Browne’s head. Barrows also tried to open a backseat door where Browne kept repair supplies. That door was locked, and the victim tried right then to shut his door, which is when Barrows shot him the first time. Barrows then reached into the car through the open door to take a cellphone from the driver’s-side footwell. He then shot Browne again before running away. Wounded by the two shots, Browne tried to drive away. He crashed into a nearby apartment building in the 3300 block of Yellowstone where he died. Duplechain pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Jose Orbin Martinez-Lopez, 46

Jose Orbin Martinez-Lopez, 46, is a Honduran man who lived in Houston when he was sentenced to life in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting two girls and then trying to kill both and burn down their house in 2020. Martinez-Lopez was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14. Martinez-Lopez cannot appeal the conviction. Martinez-Lopez broke into a home in southwest Houston where the sisters, ages 11 and 12, lived to attack them on Sept. 10, 2020. Martinez-Lopez, who is 5 feet 3 inches tall, was able to get in through a small window. He slashed one girl’s throat with a box cutter and when her sister came to help, he locked both in a room and set a fire inside the house. He then fled. First responders were able to help the girls, and both survived. Investigators with the Houston Police Department learned that Martinez-Lopez knew the family of the girls and had been in the house several times before. At different times before the fire, he had sexually assaulted both young girls. After they told family members what he did, he broke in and tried to kill them. Martinez-Lopez planned to escape back to Honduras but apparently missed his flight. He was arrested trying to get another flight out of Houston and held on a $1 million bond. In May, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child. After a hearing on Tuesday in which both girls were able to testify against their attacker, he was sentenced by a judge. Martinez-Lopez must serve at least 30 years in prison before he will be eligible for parole.

Buck McCoy, 43

A 43-year-old man from Alvarado, a small town south of Dallas-Fort Worth, was sentenced on August 22, 2024, in Houston to life in prison without parole for molesting six young girls in different places, including Harris County. Buck Oddason McCoy worked to ingratiate himself into different families beginning in 2012 and continuing for eight years. McCoy would work to gain the trust of parents and then take advantage of that trust by molesting the girls, usually ages 10 to 12, when he was taking care of them. Although McCoy’s listed address was in Alvarado, he had been living in the Houston area since about 2016. He was arrested by deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in 2022 after outcries from victims about what he did. During a four-day trial last week, jurors heard testimony from six victims before sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jarvis Hickerson, 40

Jarvis Earl Hickerson, 40, of Houston, was convicted by a jury of capital murder on September 18, 2024, after an eight-day trial, for killing 32-year-old Amalia Alexander on Sept. 19, 2016. Days before the murder, Alexander filed an assault charge and a protective order against Hickerson for assault because he hit her at a north Houston IHOP restaurant where they were eating. Jurors in Hickerson’s trial heard evidence that he tried to persuade her to drop the charges and even proposed to her to keep her from testifying against him. When those efforts failed, Hickerson killed her in her apartment and dumped her remains in a field in Montgomery County. Investigators traced the last known location of Alexander’s missing cellphone to a field in Montgomery County. There they found her remains in a shallow grave about two months after she disappeared. It is unclear how Hickerson killed her. While free on bond, he tampered with his GPS ankle monitor and assaulted a different girlfriend by choking her. He was rearrested and remained in the Harris County Jail until his trial. Hickerson was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole after he was convicted. He will never be eligible for parole and will never be released from prison.

Christian Cavazos, 22

A documented Houston gang member was sentenced on Sept. 20, 2024, to life in prison for killing five people in three separate shootings in 2019. The crime spree began on Sept. 6, 2019 when Cavazos and other men were in a vehicle when they fired several shots into a car, wounding the driver. The driver pulled over and Cavazos walked to the vehicle and fatally shot 19-year-old Ryan McGowan, who was in the backseat. Later that month, Cavazos and other men were driving around late at night on Sept. 25, 2019.  They saw a purple Dodge Charger that they believed belonged to a rival gang member and started following it. In reality, the distinctive automobile belonged to 65-year-old Ramiro Reyes and his wife, Rosalva Reyes, 63. Cavazos and his group followed the couple to their home in northwest Houston. The couple were fatally shot as they were getting out of their car in front of their house. Almost three months later, Cavazos was again the triggerman in a drive-by shooting, this time in north Harris County. Cavazos, who was a passenger, started shooting wildly at an outdoor film set where a group of people were making a music video on Dec. 27, 2019. Videographer Gonzalo Andrew Gonzalez, 22, and Jonathan Jimenez, 20, were killed in the shooting, and seven other people were injured. Cavazos was facing a charge of capital murder before opting to plead guilty to three counts of murder and have his punishment determined by a judge after a sentencing hearing. During the hearing, the judge heard details about all five killings and sentenced Cavazos to life in prison.

Luis Luna, 27

A Houston father was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Oct. 3, 2024, after being convicted of capital murder for sexually molesting and killing his 8-month-old daughter in 2020. Luis Luna, 27, was convicted in a 10-day trial of killing 8-month-old Savayah Mason on Aug. 24, 2020. He was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. Harris County sheriff’s deputies and other first responders were called to Luna’s apartment in the Alief area that day because of reports that the infant had stopped breathing. Emergency medical personnel worked to help the baby, but she was not responsive. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead. An autopsy later showed evidence that she died of suffocation. There were marks on her neck and ligature marks that showed she had been bound. There was also evidence that she had been sexually assaulted. Luna will never be eligible for parole and will never be released from prison.

Lawrence Reed, 56

A Katy man was sentenced to life in prison for shooting his 20-year-old step-daughter, his 16-year-old step-son, and shooting and killing his wife, in a chaotic domestic violence incident at the family’s home in 2021. Lawrence Reed, 56, was convicted by a jury of murder and sentenced to life on Oct. 3, 2024, for fatally shooting 36-year-old Valarie Junius at their house on July 29, 2021. Reed first shot the 20-year-old in the chest. Reed's wife ran out the back door after she was also shot. Several children ran out the front door. Reed followed her out of the house. He saw her hiding near a neighbor's car with her 16-year-old son. Reed shot the teen twice. Then he shot his wife, killing her. A neighbor tried to perform CPR to save Reed's wife, but Reed came over with the gun, kicked the dead woman in the head and told the neighbor that she was dead. One of her teen sons was also trying to help his mom, and Reed pointed the gun at him and told him to run away or face being shot as well. Reed then went back inside. When deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office arrived, Reed barricaded himself in the house, saying that if anyone came in, he would shoot them. The 20-year-old and the 16-year-old survived the shooting.

Jorge Trevino Cardenas, 52

A Houston man was sentenced on Oct. 10, 2024 to life in prison after being convicted of murder for fatally stabbing a mother of five in 2009. Jorge Trevino Cardenas, 52, was already in prison after being convicted of sexual assault of a child. He was arrested for that crime in 2014, and a sample of his DNA was collected and put on file. Back in 2009, Domitila Alvarez, a 38-year-old mother of five, went to her family’s auto shop in the Alief area alone to take care of some business on the evening of April 24, 2009. Hours later, family members found her body in the office of the shop. She had been brutally stabbed many times during an altercation with someone with a long knife. In addition to the blood found on the dead woman’s clothes, investigators found bloodstains on the door leading out of the office, on security bars outside the door and on a parked truck outside. There was no apparent motive for the murder, and the trail ran cold after police chased down every lead they had. In 2021, the Houston Police Department’s Homicide Division Cold Case Squad re-examined the evidence as part of a case-review project and identified Cardenas through his DNA. Tests showed Cardenas’s DNA was a match for DNA on Alvarez’s clothes, on the door, on the security bars and on the truck. Cardenas must serve at least 30 years in prison before he will be eligible for parole.

Van Henry Brisbon, 62

A 62-year-old man from Humble was sentenced Oct. 17, 2024, to life in prison without parole for killing his girlfriend’s teenage daughter while attempting to rape her. Van Henry Brisbon was convicted of capital murder by a Harris County jury for killing 16-year-old Lauren Juma at their home in Humble just after 1 a.m. on April 29, 2022. Lauren, who was a student at Nimitz High School, was at home alone with Brisbon when she FaceTimed her mother and sister to tell them that Brisbon was acting "weird." Her mother, who was out of town for work, sent Lauren’s older sister to the house to pick up the teen. When the sister arrived, Brisbon was holding Lauren against her will with a gun. Deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office also arrived and heard gunshots coming from inside the house. Brisbon then went outside and was arrested. Lauren had been killed with a 9mm handgun that was found inside the house. Investigators also found evidence of Brisbon attempting to rape the teen. During the nine-day trial, jurors listened to testimony and saw evidence about what happened that night and then convicted Brisbon of capital murder. He was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Daniel Chacon, 32

A Houston man who kidnapped and fatally shot his ex-girlfriend, a Pasadena mother of four, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Dec. 17, 2024. Daniel Chacon, 32, was convicted of capital murder for killing his ex-girlfriend, 38-year-old Maira Gutierrez, on Oct. 3, 2022. The couple had broken up about a month before the murder. Chacon, who was the father of Gutierrez’s youngest child, had temporary custody of the 6-month-old. The baby lived with him and his new girlfriend, who was pregnant and also had an older child with Chacon. Gutierrez came to visit her baby regularly while Chacon was at work, usually around 9 a.m. The day of her murder, Gutierrez was visiting the baby at Chacon’s apartment in the 3800 block of Red Bluff around 9 a.m. while Chacon was not present. During the visit, Chacon placed a phone call to order Gutierrez to abruptly stop her visit and leave his apartment. When Gutierrez returned to her silver SUV in the parking lot of Chacon’s apartment complex, Chacon was hiding in the backseat with a handgun. Witnesses at the complex heard Gutierrez screaming for help and saw Chacon chase after Gutierrez as she attempted to run away. Witnesses then saw Chacon force Gutierrez into the backseat of her SUV at gunpoint. He then got in the driver’s seat of Gutierrez’s vehicle and fled as neighbors called 911. Pasadena police responded. An emergency ping was issued for Gutierrez’s phone, which was found about 13 miles from Chacon’s apartment on the side of the 610 Loop by officers with the Houston Police Department. Shortly after, Gutierrez’s SUV was found near the location of her recovered phone in an industrial construction site in the 5200 block of Cedar Crest in southeast Houston. Gutierrez was inside, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Chacon fled to Mexico but later turned himself in.