FORT WORTH -- The owner of a southeast Fort Worth auto repair shop was convicted of felony murder Monday in the death of a 25-year-old man outside the business in 2011.
Arthur Foley Jr., 44, could be sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting Brandon Sibley, a fired employee of the auto shop, in the chest.Foley testifed earlier Monday that an intoxicated Sibley was "screaming as he came toward me" and was hitting Foley's sister May 23, 2011, at Alf's Auto Repair in the 5200 block of Mosson Road.Foley said he aimed the gun at Sibley's chest from about eight feet away."Brandon took three or four steps toward me after I pointed the gun at him," Foley said.The gun fell from Sibley's pants earlier during the altercation with Foley's sister, Foley said.During closing statements, prosecutors said Foley used his own gun. Shell casings found in the front and rear of the business, where people often shot at targets, matched the gun used to kill Sibley, a Fort Worth forensic expert testified Friday.But the gun had been wiped clean, and no DNA evidence or fingerprints could be taken from it, prosecutor Rebecca McIntire said."While everyone else is running away, [Foley] cleans the gun and puts it up while Brandon Sibley is dying less than 75 yards away" McIntire said. "That's coldblooded murder."Defense attorney Abe Factor said in his closing statement that if it really had been Foley's gun, he would have gotten rid of it. Instead, police easily found it in a desk drawer at his business.Sibley picked the weakest person -- the defendant's sister, Miracle Foley -- at the auto repair shop to attack, Factor said. And Foley shot Sibley only once, enough to get him to stop his attack."Sibley was instrumental in his own death," Factor said. "In this case, you combine alcohol, a gun and attacking someone who was relatively defenseless."Last week, witnesses testified that Sibley, known at the shop as Baby Boy, had recently been fired by Foley. Sibley needed money, his father, Tom Sibley, testified.Brandon Sibley had left stereo speakers at the shop as collateral for a $300 to $400 loan. Employee Willie Davis testified that when Sibley showed up the day of the shooting, he told Sibley that the speakers had been stolen when the business was burglarized two days earlier.Davis said that after the insurance company settled the burglary claim, and after Sibley repaid the loan, he would either replace the speakers or give Sibley cash.Prosecutor Joshua Ross emphasized to jurors that everyone at the shop when Sibley was killed -- all of them Foley's friends, relatives and employees -- testified that they did not see anything, including who shot Sibley."How fortunate for you," Ross said, looking at Foley.Foley testified that his sister had told him that he needed to be careful about whom he let hang around the shop, in reference to a string of burglaries in the past three years. After one burglary in 2009, Foley's insurance carrier paid a $30,000 claim, Ross said.Ross suggested that Sibley confronted Foley because he doubted that the burglary story was true."He knew you had taken the stuff and sold it, and either he wanted his money back or he wanted his stuff back," Ross said.Miracle Foley was fatally shot in the chest June 10 in an unrelated killing,according to the Tarrant County medical examiner's website.The punishment phase of the trial is set to begin at 8:30 this morning in state District Judge Robb Catalano's court.Mitch Mitchell,817-390-7752Twitter: @mitchmitchel3
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