District Attorney Erleigh Norville Wiley announced today that a Kaufman County jury has sentenced 21-year-old ZACCHAEUS JA’JUAN HENDERSON to 60 years in the Texas penitentiary. After a weeklong trial before Honorable Judge Shelton Gibbs in the 422nd District Court of Kaufman County, a jury found Henderson guilty of Murder in the September 2021 shooting that took place outside of North Forney High School just hours before classes were to start.
Evidence in trial showed that Henderson and two other members of a small, criminal Dallas street gang came out to Forney in the middle of the night and lured 22-year-old Desmond Smith to his death under the guise of being a female that the victim was going to meet with at the North Forney High School parking lot. When he arrived, he instead met the three assailants from Dallas. They jumped out of the car, riddled the unarmed Smith with bullets, striking him 26 times in the span of mere seconds. The crime led to a multi-agency investigation led by the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office that took place over the course of many months. Cell phone forensics, social media records, and cell phone call records were all used to place Henderson at the crime scene at the time of the murder using new technology now available to law enforcement.
The jury found Henderson guilty of the first-degree felony of Murder. Punishment evidence presented by the state revealed that the victim, Mr. Smith had a daughter, now 5 years old, who was asleep in a home just a few hundred yards away from her father when he was killed. Desmond Smith was also a beloved son and brother. The jury heard evidence during trial that his parents had purchased a home in Forney in 2019 for their two sons and granddaughter to escape the gang culture of Dallas and grow up in the quiet, safe, community of Kaufman County. At the conclusion of punishment evidence, the jury sentenced Henderson to 60 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division.
The prosecution was led by Assistant Criminal District Attorneys Robyn Beckham, Marc Moffitt, Taylor McConnell and Hillary Heisel; Investigators Mike Holley, Wayne Watson, and Kyle Bratcher; and paralegal Kristen Tucker. The District Attorney’s Office would like to thank the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, The Texas Rangers, the Dallas Police Department gang unit, and Mesquite Police Department for their tireless and dedicated work in this case.
“The Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office wants to thank the jurors in this case for delivering justice to this family and for sending a message to those who would commit crimes in our community that Kaufman County is serious about punishing violent crime. This case was the first of its kind, presented to a jury by our street crimes division, and we are proud that the citizens of Kaufman County share our dedication to deter gang violence in our community,” says District Attorney Erleigh Wiley.
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