Third suspect arrested in fatal shooting at west Fort Worth gambling house
A third suspect has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting and robbery of a 55-year-old man at a west Fort Worth gambling house in May, police said.
Rickey Wilder, 28, was booked into the Fort Worth City Jail on Monday and faces a capital murder charge, according to police records. He’s accused of shooting Claude Jeter Smith during a gambling dispute.
According to police, Smith often gambled at a home in the 5400 block of Blackmore Avenue. The night of May 2, he and a relative won several thousand dollars from Kennard Ivory — the homeowner — and Jerome Watkins Jr. The two men left with their winnings, but Smith got a call from Ivory a short time later asking them to come back, police wrote in the suspects’ arrest warrant affidavits.
Smith and his family member declined, but promised to return the next night. When the two men arrived at the house May 3, Ivory, Watkins and another man in his mid-20s who was armed with a rifle were waiting for them, police said. Ivory went to the back of the house, and less than a minute later another man wearing a mask and carrying a rifle came in the front door, according to the affidavits.
Smith tried to run in the direction Ivory had gone, but the masked man shot him several times, police said. Watkins hit Smith’s family member over the head and took several hundred dollars and a cell phone out of the man’s pockets while the two suspects with rifles pointed their guns at him, according to the affidavits. Smith later told his relative that Ivory had stolen several thousand dollars from him while he was lying wounded in the hallway.
After the gunmen left, Ivory helped Smith’s relative carry him to a car, the affidavits state. The 55-year-old Smith was taken to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, where he died June 13 from his injuries.
Ivory and Watkins, both 31, were arrested in August and charged with capital murder in connection with Smith’s death. Ivory is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $400,000 bond, and Watkins has since bonded out.
According to Wilder’s arrest warrant affidavit, a friend told police he’d seen the 28-year-old enter the house the night Smith was shot. Wilder remained inside for several minutes, then ran out the front door with some other people, his friend said.
Wilder told police he hadn’t fired a gun while at the house, but a polygraph test showed he was lying, the affidavit states.
Wilder later told detectives that he’d arrived at the Blackmore Avenue house about midnight. He found several people fighting inside, according to the affidavit. He said he came in through the front door carrying an AR-style rifle and left after hearing gunshots.
Wilder claimed he’d never had any communication with Ivory, but phone records show the two had been in touch after Smith’s shooting, according to the affidavit.
