Fort Worth man sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder of 2 roommates
A 24-year-old Fort Worth man was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the January 2022 murders of his two roommates, officials said.
Jacoby McCloud pleaded guilty to killing 26-year-old Darion Deen and 22-year-old Shelby Amerson, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced on X.
“I hope you spend the rest of your life thinking ... about what you took from this world,” Amerson’s mother told McCloud in court on Friday, the post said.
When he killed the victims, McCloud also stabbed himself and then planted the knife in Deen’s hand so he could try to claim self-defense, police have said.
McCloud called 911 on Jan. 2, 2022, and initially lied about what happened, reporting that he’d shot his friend after his friend stabbed him, according to his arrest warrant affidavit. Fort Worth police responded to the home in the 300 block of Cromwell Street and found Deen dead from multiple gunshot wounds and holding a knife in his right hand.
Officers found Amerson’s body in a bedroom. She’d been stabbed to death, according to police. McCloud, who had several stab wounds on his left bicep, was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The then 22-year-old changed his story but still lied about what happened, police wrote in the affidavit. In that story he told police he’d heard Deen and Amerson arguing in their bedroom. McCloud said he shot Deen when he left the bedroom, according to the affidavit. He didn’t see a weapon, but the look in Deen’s eyes scared him, he told police.
At that time, McCloud said he found Amerson dead in the bedroom, according to the affidavit.
But in a later interview McCloud told police that Deen didn’t have a weapon when he left the bedroom, and he’d made no threatening statements or movements toward McCloud. McCloud said he backed away from Deen and shot him four times.
According to the affidavit, McCloud admitted he stabbed himself several times in the left bicep after shooting Deen. Amerson came into the room while McCloud was stabbing himself, and he followed her back into the bedroom and stabbed her multiple times, he confessed.
McCloud told police he stabbed himself one more time in the shoulder, and then placed the knife in Deen’s hand while he was lying dead on the floor.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the deaths of Deen and Amerson a homicide. Fort Worth police arrested McCloud on Feb. 9, 2022, and charged him with capital murder of multiple persons.
On Friday, McCloud was given two life sentences for the murders of Deen and Amerson.
This story was originally published July 27, 2024 at 2:12 PM.
