Fort Worth murder suspect said she needed to ‘get this dead body out my house’: affidavit
Inside of a 45-gallon blue plastic storage container, Dwight Hood’s body was in the fetal position.
Rope tied his ankles and upper torso. Silver duct tape bound his right wrist and face.
The 52-year-old man had been cut on his head and back.
A large wound to Hood’s lower left leg suggested that someone had tried to separate it from the rest of his body.
Hood was killed in early June inside of a unit at the Sierra Hermosa Apartments on Las Vegas Trail in west Fort Worth, police have said. The storage container holding his body was loaded into the trunk of a Ford Taurus, and the container was at midday left on a road leading to a shale gas pad in north Fort Worth.
An arrest warrant affidavit describes the Fort Worth police account of a physical fight among Hood, Christopher Ikner, Tisha Jeffrey and a man whose name the police department redacted when it released the affidavit to the press. Ikner, 26, and Jeffrey, 51, have been charged in state district court with murder in the Hood case.
The affidavit also recounts the priority effort to discard Hood’s body in the 3300 block of McCandless Street.
“I can’t do [expletive] until I get this dead body out my house,” Jeffrey told a friend who repeated the statement to a Fort Worth police officer whom Jeffrey’s friend flagged down on Las Vegas Trail the day before Hood’s body was discarded. The woman told the officer a friend nicknamed “Country” told her that a man was dead inside of an apartment.
Fort Worth officers asked a Sierra Hermosa complex employee about a woman nicknamed “Country” who lived there, but the affidavit does not describe the disposition of the officers’ inquiry. The document suggests Hood’s body was inside of the apartment at the time.
In an interview with Fort Worth Police Department Homicide Unit Detectives Logan Bidding and Jeffrey Jensen after the body was found, Tisha Jeffrey said she arrived on June 3 to the apartment that she leased to see there Hood, Ikner and a man whose name police redacted in the affidavit. She knew each of them.
Hood had previously stolen from Jeffrey and was not allowed in her home, she told police.
Jeffrey argued with Hood and struck him across the mouth with the back of her hand, she said. Hood’s teeth cut her, and a physical altercation erupted among Hood, Ikner and the person whose name police redacted in the affidavit.
Ikner was holding a large Ginsu-style kitchen knife and acted as though he was going to strike Hood with it, according to the affidavit. Ikner discarded the knife on the floor and began striking Hood with his fists.
The person whose name police redacted struck Hood in the head with a walking cane. Hood fell to the floor and began bleeding profusely.
Jeffrey left the apartment, and Ikner and the person whose name police redacted were still punching and kicking Hood, according to the document.
Jeffrey returned to her apartment the next day, and Ikner was still there, she told police.
Hood was dead, and his body was in the blue plastic storage container.
Beyond Ikner, affidavit redactions make it unclear who Jeffrey said loaded the container holding Hood’s body into the trunk.
She and Ikner used bleach to clean Hood’s blood off of the floor and ceiling of her apartment, according to the interview summary that is included in the affidavit.
Jeffrey was charged on July 10. She is referenced in the affidavit by an alias, Tisha Hulsey.
Ikner was charged on Aug. 1. It is not clear if Ikner agreed to be interviewed by detectives.
Bidding and Jensen interviewed Jeffrey’s boyfriend. He said he went to the apartment on the night of the killing and said he saw that Hood was injured and tied up on the living room floor.
Ikner and the person whose name police redacted “were sitting around as if nothing had happened and when he questioned them about what was happening they acted as if they didn’t care,” Bidding wrote in the affidavit.
Hood was conscious, according to Jeffrey’s boyfriend.
“Tell Country that I’m sorry,” the victim said.
A large plastic crate sat near him.
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 5:58 PM.
