Man sentenced to 50 years for murder in 2022 shooting death of biker in Azle
A man convicted of shooting and killing a motorcyclist on Jacksboro Highway in Azle in 2022 was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison, according to court records.
Anthony Bennett, who was 27 at the time, fatally shot 43-year-old Brian Keith Turner after the two men drove away from a gas station on Texas 199 in Azle on July 31, 2022, the Star-Telegram previously reported.
A Tarrant County jury sentenced Bennett after finding him guilty of murder at his trial this week.
Bennett’s family told reporters after the shooting that Bennett claimed he fired in self-defense because Turner had followed him, called him anti-gay slurs and threatened him.
According to court documents, prosecutors argued that Bennett “identified as Antifa” and deliberately targeted and murdered Turner, who had been a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
Prosecutors said the two men did not know each other, but they introduced evidence during the trial that showed Bennett had “an obsession with white nationalist groups, Aryan Brotherhood, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and other white supremacy groups. In his interview he details that he has studied them and read books about these groups,” according to a document the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office filed called a notice of extraneous offenses and intention to introduce evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts.
About a year before the shooting, Bennett “went on a video rant on the app Telegram, talking about exiling racists and ridding them of society,” prosecutors wrote. “The Defendant refers to these people as ‘problems.’ The defendant refers to himself as far left and queer. Defendant says he gets ‘plenty of strange looks’ where he is living. This all goes to the defendant’s mindset when he believes Brian Turner is following him because of his LGBTQ+ bumper sticker and goes to his unreasonable paranoia.”
An Azle police detective wrote in a search warrant affidavit that officers reviewed video of the shooting that showed Turner’s motorcycle was initially behind Bennett’s car on the highway, but the motorcyclist passed the car and was in the left lane when Bennett, driving in the right lane, opened fire from behind.
Police saw Bennett’s license plate number on the video and tracked him down at his workplace two days after the shooting, according to the affidavit.
In an interview with police, Bennett admitted to firing his handgun and shooting Turner four times. He told police that he had feared for his life and that he thought Turner might have reached for a gun, but police said no gun was found with Turner, according to the affidavit.
After the shooting, Bennett drove away from the murder scene and hid his gun in a wooded area off a road in Fort Worth, according to the affidavit. After police found and interrogated him, he later showed them where to find the gun, the affidavit states. He also had removed recognizable bumper stickers from his car, including an LGBTQ sticker and a gun sticker, to try to avoid being connected with the crime, authorities said.
In court documents, prosecutors also wrote that Bennett had downloaded and saved instruction manuals related to “anarchism, activism, and insurrections” and had photos on his phone showing he “was targeting motorists with bumper stickers and documenting them.”
On March 15, 2022, at the same gas station where he encountered Turner, Bennett took photos of the license plate of an SUV that had stickers that said, “100% White and Proud,” prosecutors wrote.
Bennett is appealing the jury’s verdict, according to court records.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 7:38 PM.
