Former friend guilty of murder in 15-year-old’s killing at Fort Worth apartments
Ejected .40-caliber cartridge casings were found in the apartment building breezeway with Xavier Hullaby’s body.
The 15-year-old had been shot to death.
Witnesses at the Arwen Apartments in south Fort Worth reported two people in masks came from the breezeway after the shooting on May 29, 2023, and got into a gray Jeep. Detectives would come to believe that five people were in the vehicle when it entered and left the complex in the 7900 block of Joshua Drive. Grand juries indicted four people on a murder charge in the case.
In interviews with Fort Worth Police Department detectives, three of the suspects provided inconsistent answers on who was driving the Jeep, who got out of it and who had guns.
Hullaby’s death was caused by multiple gunshot wounds, according to a Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office pathologist. The cartridges found near his body were fired from one of two guns, a firearms examiner concluded.
Dwayne Gould was one of the shooters, a jury found at his trial last week.
Hullaby talked by telephone with Gould, who had been a friend, after a fight that occurred six days before the homicide, according to the account of Hullaby’s mother that a detective referenced in an arrest warrant affidavit supporting Gould’s arrest.
“I’ll come to your house and pop you off,” Gould said to Hullaby as the victim’s mother listened, according to the affidavit.
A jury in the 297th District Court in Tarrant County found Gould guilty of murder. On July 29 the jury assessed his punishment at 17 years in prison.
The panel was directed to consider a prison term of between five and 99 years, or life. Gould will become eligible for parole when he has served 8 1/2 years — half of his sentence. Gould is 20.
Three accomplices testified at murder trial
Accomplices Tedarius McGruder and Tyron Quinn testified during Gould’s trial, as did a juvenile who, under a plea agreement, was ordered confined for 35 years, first in a Texas Juvenile Justice Department facility. At a transfer hearing to be held just before he is 19, a judge will determine whether the juvenile will continue the sentence in a prison or be released from custody under parole supervision.
McGruder was sentenced to 17 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder in May. Quinn’s case is pending.
Defense attorneys Kathy Lowthorp, Stephen Handy and Shelby Barrett were appointed to represent Gould. Assistant District Attorneys Davye Estes and Stuart Neal represented the state. Judge Amy Allin presided at the trial.
