Man who shot 19-year-old sex worker, dumped body on Trinity River bank pleads guilty
A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2023 murder of a 19-year-old North Texas woman.
Joseph Aparicio, 31, pleaded guilty in the shooting death of Janeecia Mason.
Aparicio picked Mason up as she walked with another sex worker at night in an industrial area of Dallas in March 2023, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Four days later, Mason’s body was found dumped next to the Trinity River under the Precinct Line Road bridge in Fort Worth, police said. She had been shot twice in the head.
Using cellphone data and surveillance video, investigators connected Aparicio to Mason’s death. Her blood and clothing were found at his home in Haltom City.
Investigators learned through DNA collected in Mason’s case that Aparicio also shot and killed another woman, Chloe Darnell, on March 2, 2022, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
He has been sentenced to life in prison in that case as well, and the sentences will run concurrent with each other, the district attorney’s office said in a social media post on Friday, Feb. 7.
At his sentencing hearing on Friday, Mason’s mother spoke, telling Aparicio that, “Nene was very loved and you didn’t think about that. We have made it through this by relying on each other and God.”
