Why a judge, prosecutor, sheriff are helping a Texas man lessen his prison sentence
A state district judge, the Tarrant County criminal district attorney and the Tarrant County sheriff are supporting the efforts of a local man to lessen his 50-year sentence for shooting a teen in 1997 near the Fort Worth courthouse.
The three signed and sent a letter this week to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for 40-year-old Aaron Dyson, who was convicted and sentenced by a Tarrant County jury in 1998. He will be eligible for parole in 2023.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has obtained a copy of the letter.
Jurors sentenced Dyson on a charge of engaging in organized crime for shooting Joe Cruz on May 27, 1997. Cruz was leaving a pre-trial hearing for shooting and killing Omar Alvarado, a close friend of Dyson’s. After recovering from the shooting, Cruz was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for Alvarado’s murder.
The trial testimony, the indictment and the jury charge all refer to Dyson as an R-13 gang member and said his actions in 1997 were due to his gang affiliation.
But the conviction integrity unit of the Tarrant County criminal district attorney’s office reviewed the case and they believe Dyson was overcharged based on scant and potentially false evidence that he was gang member.
Even Cruz has voiced his support for the man who shot him, according to an April 2017 story by the Dallas Morning News.
“It has been said that time heals all wounds, and it has healed mine,” Cruz wrote in a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. “I feel that his sentence of 50 years was excessive, especially in view of the fact that I was sentenced to 30 years.”
The letter signed by State District Judge Mike Thomas, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson and Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn was a joy for Dyson’s mother, Angie Auldridge of Granbury.
“I think it’s great!” Auldridge said in a Thursday email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I think finally we have found someone that actually would listen, read and understand what we all have been saying about our son, James ‘Aaron’ Dyson, my baby boy.”
But Auldridge was cautious because “we have been let down so many times, when our hopes were high.”
On the night of the 1997 fatal shooting when his friend was killed in Everman, Dyson was working as an assistant manger at a Dairy Queen
“He (Dyson) was supposed to have gone to the birthday party in Everman where the shooting happened when Omar was killed, “ Dyson’s mother said. “He (Dyson) couldn’t get off. This is a lot of the reason why he was so upset, cause he just kept saying, ‘If I had been there that night, Omar may still be alive today.’”
The letter from Tarrant County officials stated it was clear that Dyson was guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but evidence now known raises questions about whether it was gang-related.
According to the letter, that conclusion is based on these facts:
▪ Joe Cruz did not belong to a gang when he shot and killed Alvarado or when he was shot by Dyson. His feud with Alvarado involved a girl.
▪ Dyson shot Cruz for killing Alvarado. Dyson has never denied shooting Cruz, only denying that the shooting was gang-related.
▪ No trial testimony suggested that the shooting was premeditated. The shooting had no hallmarks of a planned gang retaliation, but it was an emotional reaction by a then distraught 17-year-old Dyson seeing Cruz walking freely down a street in downtown Fort Worth.
▪ Grief support volunteer Terry Craig described Dyson as extremely distraught over Alvarado’s death and beginning the grief process when he shot Cruz. Craig confirmed Dyson was not emotionally or mentally capable of planning a shooting.
▪ Robert Aguirre, who also was 17 years old at the time of the shooting, was present when Dyson shot Cruz and confirmed that the shooting was purely a spontaneous reaction by Dyson.
▪ Aguirre had testified in Dyson’s trial that Dyson “claimed” R-13 membership. But Aguirre had pending felony charges and prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor DWI in exchange for his testimony. Aguirre said he felt pressured by trial prosecutors to imply that the shooting was gang-related when it had no such relationship.
▪ Aguirre never saw Dyson engage in gang activities. He also said that police and prosecutors ascribed terms such as “home boy” used by Dyson and their friends to gang association when it was not the case.
▪ Aguirre has made multiple attempts to recant his trial testimony suggesting Dyson’s gang involvement. He has stated Dyson had never been initiated into the R-13 gang. Back when they were teenagers, Aguirre described Dyson as a poser fascinated with the gangster lifestyle who threw signs and made claims to “act cool” or “show off” for attention.
▪ No witness observed Dyson involved in actual gang-related activity. Other witnesses based their testimony that he was a gang member on photographs, his associations and information from school officials.
▪ Ramon Munoz, a former R-13 member, stated Dyson did not belong to the gang and was not even eligible since he was not Hispanic.
▪ Members of the conviction integrity unit learned that the Fort Worth Police Department started limiting its “gang-related” classifications to those crimes specifically committed to benefit a gang. Fort Worth police made the change out of concerns that gang crime was over-reported. No evidence was presented to show how Dyson shooting Cruz benefited any gang.
The letter supported Dyson’s request to lessen his sentence and recommended that it be commuted to the time already served.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 11:33 AM.
