Fort Worth teen gets life in prison for killing 5-year-old, 17-year-old in 2022 shooting

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FORT WORTH, Texas - A Tarrant County jury found a Fort Worth teen guilty of killing two people in a 2022 shooting and was sentenced to life in prison.

Fort Worth Teen Gets Life Sentence

19-year-old Jay Shawn Nixon-Clark was found guilty of capital murder on Tuesday and received an automatic life-in-prison sentence.

The backstory:

The shooting happened on Aug. 28, 2002, outside a home on Steel Dust Drive in Fort Worth.

Prosecutors say Nixon-Clark, who was 16 at the time, and his friends were parked in a car near the house, where teenagers and kids were playing in the garage with the door up.

Nixon-Clark and then-21-year-old Anthony Bell-Johnson got out of the car, carrying guns and wearing masks and ran to the house, prosecutors say. They allegedly fired more than a dozen shots, ran back to their car and drove off.

17-year-old Jamarrien Monroe and his cousin, 5-year-old Rayshard Javon Scott, were killed in the shooting. 

Jamarrien’s 18-month-old son and other family members were also hurt.

What they're saying:

"They riddled that garage with bullets," Tarrant County Asst. DA Melinda Hogan told the jury. "They unloaded 17 rounds into the garage where five children are playing."

"When (Nixon-Clark) masked up and grabbed a weapon, he knew what he was doing," said Tarrant County Asst. DA Bill Vassar. "He was 100 percent down to shoot as many people as he could that day."

Jamarrien's mother, Tijuana West, spoke directly to his son’s killer in the courtroom after his sentencing. She spoke about Jamarrien and Rayshard and said, "We can never get back what we lost."

Still, West told Nixon-Clark he has a family that clearly loves him and "there's a greatness in you that goes way beyond your circumstances."

What's next:

23-year-old Bell-Johnson was also charged with capital murder. He underwent a psych evaluation last December. A trial date hasn't been set yet.

Anthony Ray Bell-Johnson (Fort Worth Police Department)