Former Texas hospital official convicted in 2017 murders of 2 women who blackmailed him

A Parker County jury found a former John Peter Smith Hospital official guilty on Thursday of the 2017 shooting deaths in a bank parking lot of two women who had blackmailed him.

Jurors reached their decision Thursday evening against Christopher Wall, who was taken into custody after the verdict.

The jury found Wall guilty of capital murder.

Prosecutors had waived a death penalty in the case, so the verdict meant Wall was sentenced to life without parole.

Ashley Pohorence and Krista McClellan were shot to death in 2017 in a Willow Park bank parking lot as they tried to extort more money from Wall, according to an arrest warrant.

Just the day before, McClellan and Sierra McMahan had extorted $8,000 from Wall, who was the director of behavioral health administration and quality at the Fort Worth hospital, after they convinced him that they had recorded him soliciting them for sex during a massage at his Fort Worth office, according to court documents.

After the fatal shooting, Wall was arrested without incident at his parents’ home in Weatherford.

In the trial, Wall’s defense attorney told the jury that the 38-year-old Weatherford man shot the women because they had threatened to kill him and they vowed to kidnap his then 14-year-old daughter for sex trafficking.

No weapon was found on the women.

Wall had contacted the women for a massage on Backpage.com. McMahan and McClellan went to his JPS office.

It was on that day that the women got about $8,000 from Wall via extortion, according to the warrant.

After being contacted by the women, Wall supplied them the address of a bank in Willow Park as a meeting place. McMahan drove with the two women and stayed in a vehicle as Pohorence, 23, and McClellan, 21, got in a maroon vehicle with Wall. McClellan and Pohorence were from Arlington.

After a few minutes, McClellan and Pohorence began to hurriedly exit the maroon vehicle, and Wall got out and began shooting at them, according to the warrant.

McMahan told police she drove to a convenience store across the street, and saw Wall drive away from the bank parking lot.

McMahan has not been arrested nor charged with any criminal activity stemming from the situation involving Wall, according to Parker County criminal court records.

After the shooting, a caller told a dispatcher there were two women shot in a bank parking lot, authorities said.

Wall was the director of behavioral health administration and quality at John Peter Smith Hospital, a position he had held since July 2017, according to JPS records.

According to hospital records, the director of behavioral health administration and quality was under the direct supervision of the senior vice president/behavioral health administrator and collaborated with the director of psychiatric nursing.

Wall’s job had administrative authority over the administrative and support staff, directing, monitoring, and evaluating the services provided while overseeing the day-to-day operations of the inpatient and ambulatory services.

This report contains information from Star-Telegram archives.