Suspect in killing of boy, 16, behind Fort Worth Aldi pleads guilty to murder
One of four people who were indicted in the killing of a 16-year-old boy who was shot to death as he opened a car door during a 2022 marijuana robbery behind an Aldi grocery store in west Fort Worth has pleaded guilty to murder.
Two of the co-defendants have identified Roosevelt King, who was indicted on capital murder in the killing of Aaron Hall, as the shooter, according to an arrest warrant affidavit in the case. King was sentenced to 18 years in prison, on the lesser-included offense of murder.
King pleaded guilty on May 21 and was sentenced under a plea agreement with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Hall was shot in the head on Aug. 6, 2022, in the 9700 block of Legacy Drive, off White Settlement Road near West Loop 820, Fort Worth police have said. He was pronounced dead in the car as it was parked at a QuikTrip gas station near 820, about a mile from the shooting scene. After Hall was shot, another person drove him to the gas station to get help.
The co-defendants, who have been indicted on capital murder, are Corde Smith, Derrick Young Jr. and Destinee O’Neal. Their cases are pending.
O’Neal was in a car looking in a pink backpack at marijuana that she had indicated she would buy for $700 when King and Smith approached, each with a handgun, and began the robbery, according to O’Neal’s account to detectives that is described in the affidavit. O’Neal used monikers for the gunmen in her account.
As he looked at a photo line up, Young implied that King was the shooter, according to the affidavit.
Had King, 23, been found guilty of capital murder at trial, a judge would have assessed his punishment at life in prison without parole eligibility. The state waived the death penalty in the case.
In Criminal District Court No. 1 in Tarrant County, Judge Andy Porter sentenced the defendant.
