Fort Worth man who confessed to slayings indicted in Motel 6 killing

A Fort Worth murder suspect who confessed to two killings in a letter to a judge has been indicted on a murder charge in one, which prosecutors said was caught on surveillance tape at a Motel 6.

Joshua Montrel Lewis, 34, is accused of fatally shooting Alton Young, 44, and Tyera Mukes, 24, at separate locations before dawn Nov. 30.

Two murder charges were filed against Lewis in December, and a Tarrant County grand jury indicted him jury last week on a count of murder in the Mukes killing, according to district clerk records.

A grand jury has not decided on a charge in the Young case.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Lewis shot Mukes in the head in the lobby of the Motel 6 off Interstate 35W near Altamesa Boulevard at about 4:30 a.m. Nov. 30.

About thirty minutes earlier, according to an affidavit, Lewis fatally shot Young in the head at a home in the 2000 block of Daniel Street, about 8 miles from the motel.

Lewis may have known Young, but Mukes was apparently was targeted at random, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

‘I’m not a monster’

In a letter postmarked Jan. 27, Lewis wrote to state District Judge Wayne Salvant:

“1st off I want to confess my crimes I committed to you 1st and save a lot of paper work and wasted time. Know this is something I’m not proud of and I’m not a monster like the newspaper portray me. Yes, I committed two murders and this is something that I have to live with for the rest of my life & I have to answer to God for this, no one else but me.”

Lewis is in the Lon Evans Correctional Center. Inmates at the maximum-security jail are not available for media interviews.

Lewis’ mother told prosecutors last month that her son was “set up” and that another person was involved, according to a court document. She also said Lewis’ girlfriend told her that Lewis had smoked some “wet,” or PCP, the morning of the homicides.

Prosecutor Timothy Rodgers had no comment about the mother’s statement.

In the letter to Salvant, Lewis wrote that he was sorry for what he had done.

‘Small-town girl’

Mukes grew up in Cushing, Okla., and moved to Fort Worth a few years ago, her mother, Wendy Sullivan, told Oklahoma City’s KWTV in December. Mukes had a 5-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son, Sullivan told the TV station.

“A small-town girl wanted to get in a big city and she did,” Sullivan said, “and wrong place and wrong time and now, I don’t have a daughter and my grandkids don’t have a mom.”

Walter McCorkle, Mukes’ ex-boyfriend, told the Star-Telegram that Mukes had been staying at the Motel 6 about two months. He met with her at a nearby Waffle House a week before the shooting, McCorkle said.

McCorkle and Mukes began dating in 2012 and later moved to Fort Worth, where McCorkle grew up, he said.

“It really hurt me. I was kind of blaming myself for a few days, because I brought her down here,” McCorkle said. “Nobody deserves to die like that.”

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 9:49 AM with the headline "Fort Worth man who confessed to slayings indicted in Motel 6 killing."