Man sentenced to life for killing husband trying to protect wife during Fort Worth robbery
The man who shot and killed Raymond Huerta while the victim tried to protect his wife during a 2018 robbery was found guilty of capital murder Monday, according to a news release from the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Marquis Sypho, 26, has been automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Raymond Huerta, 26, was visiting his wife, Jackie Huerta, at her job at the Save A Lot grocery store on Jan. 18, 2018, when two men entered the store at 5519 James Ave. in Fort Worth and began to rob clerks at gunpoint.
Raymond Huerta had tried to intervene when he was shot multiple times.
“We were doing what we were told to do,” Jackie Huerta told the Star-Telegram in 2018. “We followed directions and, for whatever reason they had, they shot and my husband did what he did to protect me.
“My husband showed his love for me ’til his last breath,” she said.
Assistant District Attorney William Knight told the jury Sypho shot Raymond Huerta “because he could.”
“These were the actions of a cold-blooded killer,” Knight said.
The district attorney’s office said in the news release that after Raymond Huerta was shot, Jackie Huerta ran toward him to try to protect him and Sypho “brutally beat her” before opening the safe.
Videos from later that night showed Sypho, the other man who helped him rob the store and two women who helped them case the store celebrating, according to the news release.
Knight prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Peter Gieseking.
Raymond Huerta “did nothing to deserve this,” Peter Gieseking told the jury. “He was there to make sure his wife was safe.”
Gieseking implored the jury to “tell Tarrant County this is not OK.”
Judge Chris Wolfe presided over the trial in 213th District Court.
This story includes information from the Star-Telegram’s archives.
This story was originally published March 6, 2023 at 5:19 PM.