In a split decision, the 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana affirmed the conviction and 30-year sentence of a man found guilty last year of aggravated robbery.
Eric Lamont Turner, 22, was found guilty in March 2018 of robbing a couple of their marijuana. Three others, Katelin Marie Jordan, 21, Asa Ryan Mannette, 24, and Dakota Dewayne Firth, 19, each pleaded guilty at separate hearings before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell last year.
Jordan and Mannette, who testified against Turner, are serving 10-year terms while Firth is serving a 13-year term.
The four defendants hatched a plan to rob a couple who thought they were meeting someone to sell them a bag of marijuana. The defendants arranged for Mannette and Jordan to meet the couple in front of Mannette's parents' home in Bowie County.
Jordan went with the female victim to the back of the house while Mannette waited in front of the house with the male victim. Turner, who was wearing a red, white and blue mask, hid in the bushes while Jordan asked the female victim if she could hold the bag of marijuana to examine it more closely.
The original plan between the co-defendants was for Jordan to run away with the drugs once she had control of them but Turner jumped from the bushes wielding a handgun before she could. When the female victim screamed, Turner fired a couple of shots into the ground, bringing the male victim running.
The male victim was able to catch up to Jordan as she ran and Turner fired a shot in his direction. Jordan, Turner and Firth, who had been hiding nearby ran off and later met up again with Mannette at Jordan's apartment.
At Turner's trial, the victims could not identify Turner as the man who shot at them by his face though both victims testified that he had the same build. Prior to the trial, the victims were able to identify Jordan and Firth positively using social media and identified Turner as a suspect.
Jordan and Mannette testified that Turner was the man who fired the gun during the robbery. But the testimony of an accomplice alone is not sufficient under the law to support a finding of guilt. The majority opinion issued by the 6th found that there was sufficient corroborating evidence but Justice Ralph Burgess disagreed in a dissenting opinion.
Burgess' dissent argues that the conviction should be overturned because of a lack of non-accomplice evidence linking Turner to the robbery. Turner can now take his appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Turner is serving his sentence at the Briscoe Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Dilley, Texas. His parole eligibility date is June 15, 2032.