WHITEHOUSE, Texas — A Whitehouse man has been sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of stabbing another man to death in 2020.
Lars Axel Theorine, 54, who entered a not guilty plea at the trial's start, was convicted for the Jan. 2, 2020 murder of Michael Shane Reed, 43, on Thursday in the 241st District Court after a four-day trial.
Jurors then gave Theorine a life in prison sentence following their deliberations, according to online court records. He received 811 days of credit for time served in the Smith County Jail since his arrest on Jan. 4, 2020.
During a court hearing in October 2020, Theorine was offered a plea deal of 50 years in prison, but his lawyer said Theorine wanted a jury trial.
Reed was found dead on Jan. 2, 2020 on the floor of a duplex on Hanks Street in Whitehouse.
Whitehouse police officers found Theorine and Reed on the floor of the living room/kitchen area and what appeared to be blood on the floor, walls and door, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
According to the Smith County District Attorney's Office, evidence showed Theorine stabbed the victim 48 times with a kitchen knife and nearly decapitated him.
Theorine tried to "stage gory scene" to support a self-defense claim, the DA's office said.
Analysis showed Reed tried to escape before succumbing to the numerous lacerations. Theorine, who was not injured, was in the process of cleaning himself up when Whitehouse Police Department arrived at the residence, the district attorney's office said in a statement.
Theorine placed himself next to Reed and pretended as if he had been attacked, according to the DA's office.
Theorine has 18 previous criminal convictions, including three for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Theorine told an officer something like “he tried to kill me,” and then became unresponsive. He was in and out of consciousness, according to the affidavit.
As CPR and lifesaving efforts were underway, a knife with a broken blade and the partial blade were found on the floor near Reed’s body, the affidavit stated.
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