Teen sentenced as juvenile headed to adult prison for Fort Worth murder

A teen girl sentenced by a juvenile judge to 30 years behind bars last year for her part in the fatal bludgeoning and stabbing of a 59-year-old Fort Worth woman is now headed to adult prison.

Kandasha Sheree Byers was 16 when she took part in the May 2013 robbery and slaying of Adrian Thornton, a woman who had hired Byers’ boyfriend to run errands for her.

The boyfriend, 24-year-old David Rhone, remains charged with capital murder in the case. His trial is scheduled for April, court records show.

Originally charged with capital murder, Byers reached an agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to murder in May 2014 in juvenile court.

State District Judge Jean Boyd, now retired, sentenced her that month to the agreed-upon term of 30 years behind bars.

Prosecutors recently sought that Byers, now 18, be moved into the adult prison system. After a Dec. 17 hearing, the court agreed, confirmed Sam Jordan, a spokeswoman with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office.

Had the judge denied the transfer, Byers would have been paroled from a juvenile correctional facility upon her 19th birthday.

Tarrant County records show Byers was booked out of the Tarrant County Jail Wednesday morning. It was unclear to which adult prison unit she would be sent.

A longtime friend reported Thornton missing to Fort Worth police on June 15, 2013.

On June 24, 2013, a road crew found some of the missing woman’s burned property, including a key chain and a debit card, outside Marlin in Falls County.

Almost three months later, on Sept. 22, 2013, a man looking for deer found Thornton’s car hidden in the woods of Falls County. In the trunk, authorities found what would later be identified through dental records as Thornton’s remains wrapped in a comforter.

An autopsy determined that she died of multiple stab wounds to the upper chest.

Authorities believe Thornton had been killed May 25, 2013 inside her home in the 5600 block of Oakmont Lane.

At Byers’ sentencing hearing in May 2014, prosecutors read aloud summaries of interviews given by Byers and Rhone to homicide Detective J. Cedillo, in which the pair acknowledged hatching a plan to rob and murder but blamed each other for killing the woman with a hammer and knife.

Byers also testified in May 2014, claiming that she never wanted to go through with the murder but gave in because she was scared of Rhone.

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 1:49 PM with the headline "Teen sentenced as juvenile headed to adult prison for Fort Worth murder."