Shooter gets 5-year prison term in Fort Worth murder of ex-college football player
A shooter who fired a handgun three times outside of a house in far north Fort Worth, killing a man during an argument with a third person over the return of a separate gun, this month pleaded guilty to murder.
Under the terms of a plea bargain agreement between the shooter, Tajuan Burnett, and the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, Judge Steven Jumes on Aug. 15 sentenced Burnett to five years in prison.
Burnett shot Aldamian Riles to death in front of a house in the 4800 block of Great Divide Drive on Nov. 7, 2020.
When he died Riles, known as Al, was a former receiver on the football team of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He was 27.
Riles had previously loaned or temporarily given a gun to a friend, two eyewitnesses variously described in interviews with Fort Worth Police Department detectives, according to the affidavit supporting a warrant for Riles’ arrest on the offense of murder. Riles had gone to Louisiana for homecoming and had been trying to find the friend to get the gun since returning to Fort Worth, according to the account of one of the eyewitnesses that a detective recounted in the affidavit. Riles believed that the friend was avoiding him.
In the minutes before the killing, Riles and Burnett each were sitting in separate vehicles outside the house. Other people were also in each vehicle.
Riles got out. Eventually he and the person from whom he sought the return of the gun grabbed and pushed each other, according to the account of one eyewitness.
Burnett and another man tried to break up the fight. Riles twice pushed them back, according to the eyewitness’s account.
Burnett went back to the vehicle in which he had been sitting, got a pistol and fired upon Riles, according to the account.
Another eyewitness, the brother of the friend who had Riles’ gun, told detectives that Riles did not have a weapon on his body or in his clothing and made no threats, according to the affidavit. Riles had his back turned toward Burnett when he was shot, the eyewitness said.
If the case had been presented to a jury at a trial and the jury had found Burnett guilty of murder, the panel would have been instructed to assess punishment as a prison term of between five to 99 years, or life, or, if it found Burnett was under the immediate influence of sudden passion, two to 20 years.
Riles’ mother, Diedre Riles, told the Daily Advertiser newspaper in Lafayette that her son had been attending an online culinary school while living in Texas.
Burnett and others left the shooting scene in a vehicle. He was arrested on June 1, 2021.
Judge Jumes presides in the 485th District Court in Tarrant County. Defense attorney Barry Alford was appointed to represent Burnett, who is 29. Assistant District Attorney Chris Dewitt represented the state.
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 1:28 PM.
