Man enters a plea of not guilty in killing

James Takyme
James Takyme

A Texarkana man accused of murder in an alleged fight over a football bet entered a not-guilty plea Monday morning at a hearing in Bowie County.

Takyme Devon James, 39, appeared before 5th District Judge Bill Miller for arraignment with Sylvia Delgado of the Bowie County Public Defenders Office. After entering a not-guilty plea to murder on James' behalf, Delgado told the court she wasn't sure if she will be seeing the case through to a conclusion.

"Mr. James has advised me that he wants to hire a private pay attorney," Delgado said.

Miller asked James is he is planning to hire his own lawyer. James affirmed that he intends to do so.

Miller told James that if he intends to use a private attorney to defend him, he must have that lawyer appear in court at James' next pretrial hearing April 2.

Miller said he is not releasing the public defender until he is certain James has retained a lawyer on his own.

"If you're going to hire your own lawyer, get them hired sooner than later," Miller said.

At the conclusion of the hearing, James was returned to the Bowie County jail, where he is being held with bail set at $1 million.

James allegedly shot 51-year-old Tony Sanders the night of Dec. 3, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. Sanders' wife told Texarkana, Texas, police that she and Sanders had been at a club earlier in the day where James and Sanders had an argument and Sanders punched James several times.

Sanders' wife told investigators James left the club and that she and Sanders left a short time later. Sanders' wife said she and Sanders were confronted by James when they arrived at their house in the 3600 block of Jones Street in Texarkana, Texas. The wife said Sanders told her to go inside the house and into a back bedroom.

When officers arrived shortly before 10 p.m., they found "the front door to the residence kicked in and Tony Sanders unresponsive inside with a severe gunshot wound to his right upper leg."

Sanders died shortly after arriving at a local hospital. Two witnesses told police they drove James to Sanders' house and "said that he was agitated about the fight at the club. Both witnesses said that they could not control James and subsequently left him at the residence," the affidavit states.

One of the witnesses allegedly told investigators that during a phone conversation after the shooting James said, "I messed up," the affidavit states.

If convicted of murder, James faces five to 99 years or life in prison.

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