23 people in Tarrant County sentenced to life in prison in 2024

TARRANT COUNTY, Texas - In Tarrant County, 23 people have been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of their crimes in 2024. Three people have been sentenced to death, and at least six people have been sentenced to more than 66 years in prison for their crimes.

In 2023, 22 people were sentenced to life in prison. 

Here is the information for each case from the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office. 

Tarrant County people sentenced to life in prison

Michael Williams, 57

Williams was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison on September 16, 2024. Around 1:30 a.m. on April 25, 2021, Williams approached Harold Yazzie, 62, who was sitting in his truck at a Fort Worth apartment complex. Williams stole Yazzie’s cell phone and wallet. Yazzie was shot in the leg when he tried to defend himself and later died at the hospital. 

Kendrick Reagor, 41

Reagor was found guilty of burglary of a habitation with the intent to commit sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison on September 27, 2024. On June 28, 2023, Reagor forced his way into a woman’s apartment and pointed a gun at her with the intent of sexually assaulting her. Reagor had previously been convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and was on parole at the time. 

Carlus Qualls, 52

Qualls pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison on October 23, 2024. On April 30, 2021, Qualls, a habitual offender, shot Oscar Lavant Payton in the back of the head. He dumped his body by the side of the road in Fort Worth.

Leroy White, 54

White was found guilty of unlicensed possession of a firearm by a felon and sentenced to life in prison on October 24, 2024. On July 29, 2022, while working as security at an Arlington bar, White was involved in an altercation where he fired a weapon at a patron. White was on bond for robbery out of Dallas County Jail at the time of this offense. White had also been convicted of the crime of murder. 

Ryan Willrich, 32

Willrich was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison on November 14, 2024. On May 31, 2020, Willrich went with his girlfriend to an East Lancaster fast food restaurant to meet his girlfriend’s ex, Sean Woodberry, and let him take the child she shares with him. Woodbury, 27, approached the driver’s side of the car. Willrich, from the passenger’s seat, shot and killed Woodberry. The child was still in the backseat of the car. 

Esteban Hernandez, 22

Hernandez was found guilty of manufacturing and delivering between four and 200 grams of a controlled substance and sentenced to life in prison on November 20, 2024. On May 24, 2024, Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office Warrants Division officers were notified Hernandez had three outstanding felony warrants. Hernandez threatened to cut off his GPS ankle monitor. Working with Tarrant County Pre-Trial GPS Officers, deputies tracked his location and found marijuana, cocaine, and drug paraphernalia in his car. The jury learned Hernandez has multiple pending felony cases against him, including an aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14. 

Debra Mae Carter, 65

Debra Mae Carter, 65, was part of a massive Christian Ponzi scheme. She was the mistress of William Neil "Doc" Gallagher, who was given three life sentences in 2021 for the investment scam he operated that bilked around 170 local senior citizens out of more than $31 million over 10 years. At the end of a two-week trial that featured an ex-spouse, investors, and even "Doc" Gallagher himself, on July 8, a Tarrant County jury found Carter guilty of money laundering for the role she played in Gallagher’s illegal scheme. Carter represented herself in the trial that was marked by brief delays when witnesses weren’t available and when Carter briefly checked herself into the hospital. Carter was sentenced by the court to life in prison on July 30, 2024. Prosecutors proved that Carter laundered money she received from Gallagher through rental homes, land, fake charities, and more. About $200,000 in gold and silver was seized after it was found in her travel trailer. 

Israel Santiago, 51

Santiago was found guilty of sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to life on July 11, 2024. In July 2020, just three months after being paroled for homicide, Santiago sexually assaulted a 15-year-old family member. Witnesses later discovered the offense had been recorded on a home camera and turned it over to police. The jury heard evidence that Santiago had previously been convicted of several family violence assaults, driving while intoxicated, and murdering his wife in front of their children. 

Paul Good, 51

Good was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to life in prison on July 11, 2024. In 2001, Good sexually assaulted a 7-year-old family member as punishment for receiving a bad conduct mark at school. The jury heard from additional victims who testified that Good also sexually abused them when they were children. 

Brian Ricker, 42

Ricker was found guilty of the continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and was sentenced to life in prison on July 11, 2024. Ricker sexually abused a young family member over the course of six years.

Juan Gonzalez Quiles, 43

Quiles was found guilty of the continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and was sentenced to life in prison on July 12, 2024. He sexually assaulted a young female family member over the course of several years. The girl made an outcry about the sexual assault in August 2022 to a psychologist she was seeing for social anxiety. 

Michael Dillon, 43

Dillon was found guilty of the continuous sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 and was sentenced to life in prison on July 17, 2024. Dillon sexually abused a young female family member for several years, starting when she was 2 years old. CPS was made aware of the abuse and reported it to police on February 14, 2023. 

Jacoby McCloud, 24

McCloud pleaded guilty to the murder of his roommates – Darion Deen, 26, and Shelby Amerson, 22, and was sentenced to life in prison on July 26, 2024. On January 2, 2022, McCloud shot and killed one roommate who was unarmed, and then stabbed the other roommate to death. 

Thomas Boykin, 53

Boykin pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury and was sentenced to life in prison on August 9, 2024. On May 16, 2023, Boykin shot his 13-year-old son three times while he was asleep and his 21-year-old stepdaughter twice as she begged him not to shoot her. He also physically assaulted his wife. Both his son and stepdaughter survived their life-threatening injuries after they were taken into surgery. 

David Wilkinson, 49

Wilkinson was found guilty of the continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and was sentenced to life in prison on August 22, 2024. For more than a year, he sexually assaulted a nine-year-old family member. The abuse occurred repeatedly until she outcried to a family member. Evidence of his crime was found in the defendant’s bedroom during a search of his home. 

Tommy Williams, 65

Williams was found guilty of the continuous sexual abuse of a young child and was sentenced to life in prison on March 7, 2024. He had two victims – first his stepdaughter and then his step-granddaughter. 

Benedicto Cisneros Martinez, 38

Cisneros Martinez was found guilty of the continuous sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 and was sentenced to life in prison on April 19, 2024. On May 10, 2021, a relative of Cisneros Martinez made an outcry to Arlington Police that Cisneros Martinez had sexually assaulted her multiple times since she was 7 years old. The victim told police that on at least one occasion he gave her drugs before the sexual assault took place. 

Lorenzo Chacon Garcia, 52

Chacon Garcia was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to life in prison on April 25, 2024. On June 3, 2018, a 16-year-old relative of Garcia’s girlfriend reported that Garcia sexually assaulted her the night before. Garcia picked her up from a dance and gave her alcohol. Just before arriving at her house, he began rubbing her legs and feet in the car and then drove a short distance from her home where he violently sexually assaulted her. 

Jeffery Lemor Wheat, 51

As he stood in a Collin County courtroom, Jeffery Lemor Wheat said one word four times – guilty. With that word, the 51-year-old ended investigations into four home invasion sexual assaults in North Texas between 2003 and 2011, including one in Arlington. On February 27, during a multi-county disposition, Wheat was sentenced to life in prison. The first case was a September 2003 sexual assault case in Arlington, where the victim was in her home when a man broke in during the middle of the night and sexually assaulted her. He was nude except for socks on his hands and feet and a white shirt over his face. At the time, there were limitations in technology and testing, which led to the case being suspended. Years later, evidence taken from the Arlington home was retested, and cutting-edge DNA testing methods linked this case to sexual assaults that occurred in Plano, Coppell, and Shady Shores between 2010 and 2011. These three victims were all members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. In 2021, Wheat was found in Crawford County, Arkansas, and arrested. More DNA tests linked him to the Arlington case and to the three other cases. 

Jose Valle-Fernandez, 74

Fernandez was found guilty of continuous sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 and was sentenced to life in prison in February 2024. Over the course of five years, Fernandez sexually abused four of his grandchildren, who were between the ages of 5 and 9. 

Maurice Kelso Smith, 32

Smith was found guilty of capital murder for killing Darionne Burley, his girlfriend who was pregnant with twins, and was sentenced to life in prison in March 2024. On June 29, 2020, he shot Burley in the back of the head, causing her immediate death and the deaths of the babies. Smith drove to Mansfield where he robbed a woman at gunpoint of her vehicle. He left his car at the scene of the robbery, where police discovered Burley in a bloody crime scene. 

Ronnie Jackson, 41

Jackson was found guilty of aggravated assault of a peace officer with a deadly weapon in a 2020 attack against a Fort Worth police officer, and was sentenced to life in prison on January 29, 2024. On June 13, 2020, he evaded police in a stolen vehicle on Interstate 820. As he neared the Camp Bowie West Boulevard exit, an officer stood on the side of the road, throwing out spike strips to slow him down. Jackson drove toward the officer, hitting him, and then running over him. He fled the scene. The officer was taken to the hospital and underwent immediate surgery for extensive, life-threatening injuries. The officer underwent 60 surgeries and countless rehab visits since the crash.

Nathan Greer, 32

Greer was found guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and was sentenced to life in prison in January 2024. He sexually abused his girlfriend’s daughter for several years, starting when she was 5 years old. 

Capital punishment in Tarrant County in 2024

There were three men sentenced to death in Tarrant County in 2024. After a guilty verdict, the case is automatically appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals. These men will be housed in Huntsville, Texas until they are killed by lethal injection. 

Texas has carried out more executions than any other state since the early 1980s. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, there have been 591 executions since 1982. 

There have been 45 men put to death by lethal injection since 1982 who were sentenced in Tarrant County, including the first person to be killed by lethal injection, Charlie Brooks Jr.

In 2023, there were eight people killed by lethal injection in Texas. Three of them were sentenced in Dallas County. In 2024, five men were put to death in Texas. One of them was sentenced in Collin County. 

Paige Terrell Lawyer, 45

Lawyer in 2018 strangled his former girlfriend and her daughter, O’Tishae Womack, 30, and Ka’Myria Womack, 10. Ka’Myria had been viciously raped. A jury in April sentenced him to death. 

Jason Alan Thornburg, 44

Thornburg decided that David Lueras, 42, Maricruz Mathis, 33, and Lauren Phillips, 34 – all at separate times – needed to be sacrificed. He killed them, dismembered their bodies, and set their remains on fire in a dumpster in 2021. A jury in December sentenced him to death. 

Christopher Karon Turner, 48

Turner went into a convenience store in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County in 2020. He robbed the store and shot and killed Anwar Ali, 62, who owned the store. A jury in November sentenced him to death.

"As terrible as these crimes and these criminals are, it is never an easy decision to seek the death penalty," said District Attorney Phil Sorrells in a county newsletter. "We have a committee that, before making that determination, reviews the facts and circumstances of the crime, the investigation, the defendant’s criminal history, and the indicators of the defendant’s future dangerousness. Prior to this year, the last time a Tarrant County jury sent a defendant to Death Row was November 2019. That’s when a jury convicted Hector Acosta, a Mexican cartel hitman, of capital murder for killing his roommate Erick Zelaya and his girlfriend Iris Chirinos in Arlington. He beheaded Zelaya and displayed his head with a sign threatening future violence."

Defacto Life Sentences

There were at least six people in Tarrant County who were given anywhere from 66 years to 99 years in prison. 

Brandon Williams, 41

Brandon Williams, 42, was found guilty of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and was sentenced to 99 years in prison in 2024. On May 23, 2023, law enforcement officers executed search warrants for several rooms at the Relax Inn in Fort Worth where Williams was selling drugs and sex-trafficking teenagers. Among the narcotics found: fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

Steven Mayle, 53

Steven Mayle, 53, was found guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child and was sentenced to 99 years in prison in 2024. On July 10, 2021, a woman observed Mayle sexually assaulting her 10-year-old daughter. Her daughter later told investigators that Mayle sexually abused her multiple times starting when she was 9, including taking inappropriate photos of her.

Andrew Fox, 46

Andrew Fox, 46, was found guilty of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and was sentenced to 75 years in prison. On September 13, 2023, narcotics officers with the Fort Worth Police Department executed a search warrant at a hotel room where Fox was staying. Officers found methamphetamine and a firearm in the room. Fox was on parole at the time of the offense.

Steve Brashear, 67

Steve Brashear, 67, was found guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 2024. On March 23, 2020, police were called after an MHMR employee conducting a home visit heard a violent attack taking place inside a Fort Worth home. Inside, officers discovered the victim had broken bones and other injuries Brashear had caused by beating her with a baseball bat and electrocuting her with a cattle prod.

Donavin Copeland, 20

Copeland pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and animal cruelty and was sentenced to 70 years in prison in 2024. Copeland committed six aggravated armed robberies. It was common for Copeland to shoot at the store clerk and steal the robbery victim’s vehicle to leave the scene. In one robbery, Copeland pistol-whipped the victim and in another, he shot and killed the store clerk’s two-pound dog named Peanut.

Alejandro Garcia, 29

Alejandro Garcia, 29, was found guilty of numerous counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 66 years in prison in 2024. In 2018, the victim told her mother that Garcia had inappropriately touched her and began sexually abusing her when she was in the 2nd grade.

Tarrant CountyCrime and Public Safety