FORNEY - 21-year-old Zacchaeus Henderson has been found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in the slaying of Desmond Smith in September 2021.
FORNEY - 21-year-old Zacchaeus Henderson has been found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in the slaying of Desmond Smith in September 2021.
A Kaufman County Jury found Zacchaeus Henderson guilty of first-degree murder and has sentenced Henderson to 60 years in the Texas Penitentiary.
In September of 2021, 22-year-old Desmond Smith was lured to the North Forney High School parking lot in the middle of the night by Henderson and two other members of a small Dallas street gang under the guise of meeting a female. Upon arrival, the assailants jumped out of their car and shot Smith 26 times in a matter of seconds. Smith had a daughter, who is now five years old, asleep at home a few hundred yards away.
inForney.com’s Mathew Richards previously reported on this case.
Arrest warrant affidavits previously obtained by inForney.com state that Smith was shot at 2:05 a.m. and more than an hour later, a 9-1-1 call was made by someone passing by saying there appeared to be a male that had been hit by a car bleeding in the street. When authorities arrived to provide aid, they observed gunshot wounds and spent casings on the ground.
Evidence submitted during the trial showed that Smith parents had purchased a house and moved to Forney from Dallas in 2019 to escape the Dallas gang culture. Yet, unbeknownst to Smith or his family, gang culture would make its way to the safe and quiet streets of Kaufman County.
According to a statement from the Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, cell phone forensics, social media records, and cell phone records were used to place Henderson at the crime scene; this was made possible by new technology available to law enforcement.
“The Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office wants to thank the jurors in this case for delivering justice to this family and for sending a message to those who would commit crimes in our community that Kaufman County is serious about punishing violent crime," said District Attorney Erleigh Wiley in a release.
"This case was the first of its kind, presented to a jury by our street crimes division, and we are proud that the citizens of Kaufman County share our dedication to deter gang violence in our community."
The Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney’s Office led the case. The DA’s Office was assisted by the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Police Department Gang Unit, and the Mesquite Police Department.