A Killeen man was sentenced to a term of deferred adjudication probation for stabbing a man in a McDonaldâs drive-through lane after an argument last year.
James Butts, 30, of Killeen pleaded guilty on Jan. 5 to a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. On Tuesday, Judge John Gauntt followed a plea agreement in the case and placed Butts on four years of deferred adjudication probation. The judge warned that if he violates the terms of his probation, he is facing two to 20 years in prison.
The case was heard remotely in the 27th Judicial District Court.
A Bell County judge reduced two bonds that had been set in the case of a woman accused of letting two of her children live at her Killeen home in dangerous and unsanitary conditions, with an investigator testifying during a hearing that childrenâs juice boxes were stored next to Drano and that the children tested positive for methamphetamine.
Jennifer Renea Elliott, 27, and co-defendant and partner Joshua Timothy Rhoads, 35, both of Killeen, were indicted on Oct. 28, 2020, two state jail felony charges of abandoning or endangering a child by criminal negligence. Police began investigating the conditions in their home after the drowning death of their 1-year-old child last year.
A Bell County judge on Wednesday reduced the bond for a Killeen man accused of taking a vehicle with two children inside last year.
Prior to the remote hearing in the 27th Judicial District Court, Christopher Thomas Jr., 26, had bonds totaling $175,000, on charges of kidnapping, a third-degree felony, and unauthorized use of a vehicle, a state jail felony.
After hearing testimony and arguments from the attorneys, Judge John Gauntt reduced Thomas Jr.âs bonds to $25,000 on the kidnapping charge, and $10,000 on the unauthorized use of a vehicle charge.
Thomas was still listed in the Bell County Jail on Friday. He was booked into jail on Dec. 10, and he has not been indicted on either charge.
During a hearing for a Killeen man who has been in jail awaiting trial on a capital murder charge for years, a Bell County judge expressed exasperation with trial delays caused by COVID-19 mitigation orders.
Marvin Louis Guy, 56, is accused of shooting KPD SWAT Detective Charles âChuckâ Dinwiddie and injuring three other officers on May 9, 2014, when police served a no-knock warrant at Guyâs home on Circle M Drive.
Dinwiddie died in a hospital two days later.
Marvin Guy
Guy, who is facing the death penalty, has been held in the Bell County Jail since being booked on May 10, 2014. His bonds total $4 million on four capital felonies, including capital murder of a peace officer.
A Killeen man pleaded guilty earlier this week to a felony charge after police said he punched an elderly woman during a domestic incident in Harker Heights in 2019.
On Wednesday, Andre Devonte Flowers, 27, pleaded guilty to injury to an elderly person with intentional bodily injury, a third-degree felony. A sentencing hearing will be held after the completion of a presentence investigation report, according to remote court proceedings in the 27th Judicial District Court.
No plea bargain has been reached in the case, which means that Judge John Gauntt can sentence Flowers to anywhere between two to 10 years in prison.
Flowers was being held in the Bell County Jail on Wednesday in lieu of a bond of $75,000.