LONGVIEW, Texas — A Kilgore man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Friday for killing another man nearly 10 years ago over a threat about showing nude photos.
Jessie Clifford Brown, 42, was found guilty of murder in connection with the 2015 death of John Allen Franco on Friday following a jury trial.
Following the sentencing phase, the jury sentenced him to 40 years, according to Gregg County judicial records. On Tuesday, he entered a not guilty plea.
According to previous reporting from the Longview News-Journal, Brown was arrested two years after the May 20, 2015 shooting, when one of the people he was with that night spoke to a Gregg County Sheriff's Office investigator about Franco's death.
Deputies found Franco shot in the head after first responders were called to his vehicle in a ravine in the area of Old Highway 135 and Smallwood Road in Liberty City. Franco died at the scene.
A woman who was with Franco reported to investigators that a truck chased after their car and then three man ran up to Franco with a gun.
In October 2017, one of the men that Brown was with that night told the sheriff's office had asked him to go riding around with him and the other man. Brown told the other two men that Brown “wanted to assault Franco because Franco had threatened to show nude photos of (Brown’s) stepdaughter,” who Franco used to date, the warrant said.
The man told the investigators three men pursued Franco's vehicle and once the chase ended, Brown got out with his gun in his hand. Brown walked to the driver's side and shot the gun into the window. The trio then drove back to Brown’s Kilgore house after the shooting, the document explained.
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