FORT WORTH, Texas – One of the two men charged in the death of Fort Worth officer Garrett Hull was found guilty of capital murder Monday morning. 

Despite the fact that he did not pull the trigger, it took a Texas jury less than an hour to unanimously find Timothy Kion Huff guilty on the charge of capital murder for the slaying of the police officer. 

In 2018 Huff was part of a group of three people investigators suspected were responsible for a string of robberies in the area. Police said Huff, along with Dacion Steptoe, and Samuel Mayfield targeted and robbed 17 Hispanic-owned businesses.

Officer Hull was a member of the task force charged with tracking and apprehending the robbery suspects. 

According to a report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, on Sept. 14, 2018, the three men robbed patrons inside the Los Vaqueros Sports Bar. When Hull and his team realized the bar was being robbed, they called for backup and waited outside the establishment to arrest the suspects when they exited. 

When the men exited the bar and fled on foot, Hull and his team gave chase and that’s when the gun battle began. Hull and Steptoe reportedly shot at each other in the driveway of a home nearby. Hull was shot in the head. Instead of waiting for an ambulance, officers at the scene rushed Hull to the hospital in a police car, but he was pronounced dead. Steptoe was subsequently killed in the shootout with police. Huff and Mayfield were caught and taken into custody.

Attorneys representing Huff argued that their client was not responsible for the actions of Steptoe that led to the death of Hull. They emphasized that Huff told police he had stressed to his accomplices not to shoot anyone. Saying, “Whatever you do, don’t shoot anybody.”

Prosecutors argued Huff was part of a dangerous armed robbery gang that had been terrorizing patrons at Latino bars in 2018.

According to the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, it’s now up to jurors to decide next whether Huff should be put to death by the state.

“The jury will now decide if Huff gets life in prison or the death penalty,” the DA’s Office said when announcing the verdict. Those deliberations will reportedly resume on Tuesday.

Mayfield also faces a capital murder charge. His trial has not yet begun.

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. – The man convicted of shooting and killing 19-year-old Renisha McBride on his front porch in 2013 was resentenced to a 15-30 year prison sentence last Wednesday. 

In 2014, Theodore Wafer was convicted of second-degree murder, felony firearms, and involuntary manslaughter for shooting McBride on the porch of his Dearborn Heights home after she pounded on his door around 4 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2013. 

Wafer, now 63, opened his front door and shot McBride in the face through the screen door. He said he was startled out of his sleep by the pounding on his door and he feared for his life. A jury rejected his self-defense claim.

McBride had been in a car accident that night, and prosecutors speculated that she was likely disoriented when she began pounding on the door. She was later found to have been intoxicated at the time of her death.

During the trial in 2014, prosecutors argued that Wafer should have stayed inside and called the police when McBride came to his home.

“His actions that night were unnecessary, unjustified and unreasonable,” prosecutor Danielle Hagaman-Clark told the court on Wednesday, adding there was no evidence of an attempted break-in at the scene.

Evidence showed that McBride was not armed with any weapons and did not have any tools for breaking into a home.

Wafer appeared in the Wayne County Third Circuit Court on June 22 before Judge Dana Hathaway, who resentenced him to 15 to 30 years in prison with credit for time served. 

The conviction comes with 15 to 30 years for second degree murder, seven to 15 years for statutory manslaughter and two years consecutively for felony firearm. The involuntary manslaughter charge was thrown out after the Michigan Supreme Court found that Wafer’s constitutional rights were violated when he was convicted of both second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for the same shooting. 

With the manslaughter conviction dropped, he could have seen his sentence reduced to 12-20 years, however Judge Hathaway ordered Wafer to serve the exact same sentence he was originally given, resentencing him to 15 to 30 years in prison with credit for time served.

Wafer has served nearly eight years of a minimum 17 year sentence.