FORNEY, Texas — A teen involved in a drug-deal shooting that left a pregnant woman paralyzed has been sentenced to the maximum 40 years in the Texas penitentiary.
FORNEY, Texas — A teen involved in a drug-deal shooting that left a pregnant woman paralyzed has been sentenced to the maximum 40 years in the Texas penitentiary.
The defendant, who has not been named due to his age, is one of two teens who were arrested by the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office and the Precinct 2 Constable's Office in July 2022 in connection with the shooting.
The shooting occurred on Sunday, July 24, 2022, at approximately 6:24 p.m. in the 9000 block of Lone Cypress Drive in the Windmill Farms neighborhood east of Forney.
There, according to testimony and evidence presented at trial, the juvenile defendant and his brother, now-18-year-old Corey Brown-Radford Jr., had met with a male and female to purchase approximately an ounce of marijuana. Instead, the brothers had intended on robbing the two victims.
Claiming their phone wasn't working due to the heat outside, the brothers asked to get in the victims' car. While sitting in the back seat, the defendants asked to see the marijuana and, after being shown only a "bud," became agitated, and opened fire on the victims — shooting the female three times and the male once following a struggle over the firearm.
The female victim was several months pregnant at the time of the shooting. Both her and the male victim were transported to Dallas-area hospitals where they underwent several emergency surgeries.
The female victim's baby did survive the shooting but the female was left paralyzed and wheelchair bound, according to evidence and testimony presented at trial.
Investigators say the younger brother was out of juvenile detention, due to overcrowding in the regional juvenile detention facilities, and had an ankle monitor on through the juvenile probation department at the time of the shooting.
Additionally, investigators say the firearm used in the commission of the attempted robbery was recently stolen, as matched with ballistics from the crime scene.
Following approximately 10 minutes of deliberations on Wednesday afternoon, September 20, 2023, the jury found the younger brother guilty on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury.
Earlier today, September 21, 2023, Kaufman County Court at Law Judge Tracy Gray sentenced the juvenile defendant to 40 years on each count, to be run concurrently, which is the maximum sentencing guidelines on the charges.
The juvenile was remanded into the custody of the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office and will be transferred to a Texas Juvenile Justice Department facility until such time he is transferred to the adult system, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, at the age of 19.
The elder brother is being held at the Kaufman County Jail on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury on $250,000 bonds each. His trial date has not been set, according to Kaufman County records.