UPSHUR COUNTY, Texas — A Dallas-area man was sentenced to life in prison without parole in connection with the 2018 strangling death of a Longview woman in Upshur County.
Carlton Grant, 42, was found guilty of capital murder Thursday morning after a jury trial that began Tuesday. The jury then sentenced Grant to life in prison as the prosecution did not seek the death penalty, Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd said.
Grant and Lindsey McFadden were arrested in 2018 for the death of Rachel Rhoads, 24, of Longview, whose burned body was found in woods off FM 726 on April 1, 2018, the Longview News-Journal reported.
Court documents obtained by the Longview News-Journal list Rhoads’ cause of death as strangulation. Grant and McFadden, who were in a relationship, went to Rhoads’ home on March 29, 2018 and left in a car that Rhoads was driving.
Documents show while Rhoads was driving, Grant reached from the back seat and placed a bungee cord around Rhoads’ neck and told her to drive. He moved Rhoads to the back seat, where he replaced the cord with a zip tie.
Documents state the pair drove to “random places” before pulling into a secluded site off a gas pipeline right of way, where they set her body on fire. Rhoads’ mother reported her missing the day before she was found on April 5.
The couple was arrested in Bedford and taken to the Upshur County Jail. McFadden’s capital murder case remains pending and she is still in jail, Byrd said.