Man arrested in second murder case this year at same Fort Worth house
A gambling dispute in Fort Worth’s Como neighborhood earlier this year ended in a burst of violence during which a man was robbed and killed, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Police arrested 31-year-old Kennard Ivory on Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of 55-year-old Claude Jeter Smith, according to online records. Smith was shot in the dispute at Ivory’s home on the night of May 4, and died just over a month later from complications of his injuries, the Star-Telegram previously reported.
Smith gambled multiple times at Ivory’s home in the 5400 block of Blackmore Avenue from February 2025 up until the night before he was shot, according to the affidavit. Ivory, as the host of the gambling events, received a cut of the winnings, police wrote in the warrant.
On the night prior to the shooting, Smith, together with a member of his family, had won a total of “several thousand dollars” off of Ivory, police said. When Smith and his relative left with their winnings, Ivory called them and tried to get them to return and continue gambling. The men declined, but told Ivory they would return the following night, according to the affidavit.
When Smith and his relative arrived at the house the following night, Ivory was waiting inside the home with two armed men, police said. The armed men were not identified in the affidavit. Ivory then went to the back of the house as a third masked man with a rifle entered through the front door, the affidavit states. Smith tried to run in the direction that Ivory had gone, but was shot multiple times by the masked man, police said.
The man who came to the house with Smith was forced at gunpoint to empty his pockets by one of the co-conspirators in the robbery, according to the affidavit. He had been carrying a cellphone and several hundred dollars.
After the gunmen left, Ivory helped Smith’s relative carry Smith to a car to be taken to the hospital, according to the affidavit. During the drive, Smith told the witness that as he was lying wounded in the home’s hallway, Ivory had emerged from the back of the house and stolen several thousand dollars of his money.
Smith’s killing is the second to have taken place at Ivory’s home this year: 27-year-old Jordan Travis Moore was fatally shot on the house’s front porch in February, the Star-Telegram previously reported. That shooting appeared to be drug-related, and 33-year-old Desean Person is charged with murder in that case.
Kennard Ivory faces a charge of capital murder, according to the affidavit. He was being held Wednesday in the Fort Worth police detention center, and his bond had not been set. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
