Tarrant jury finds man guilty of gang-murder in girl’s slaying; mistrial on two counts

A man who prosecutors alleged shot to death a 17-year-old girl to win notoriety and respect within his Fort Worth gang was found guilty on Thursday of gang-murder and gang-deadly conduct, but a jury could not reach a verdict on two other offenses on which he was indicted.

After about five hours of deliberation, the panel in 396th District Court in Tarrant County returned the partial verdict in the case of Adrian Robinson, who was indicted in the rifle killing of Cheyenne Moore.

The presiding juror said that further discussion would not be fruitful and break a deadlock. Judge George Gallagher granted a defense motion for a mistrial on murder and deadly conduct counts.

Beyond Moore, Robinson was accused in the shootings of three other strangers who were fired upon in a Jan. 12, 2020, spasm of violence in east Fort Worth. None of the surviving victims saw the assailant.

Because of the absence of a victim identifying a suspect or another eyewitness, prosecutors told jurors that they cut a deal with Christopher Williams, another defendant indicted in the case. Williams testified that he was driving the vehicle from which Robinson and a third man stepped before shooting the victims.

Under the agreement, Williams will receive five years in prison, the minimum sentence for murder in Texas, in exchange for his testimony in the Robinson case.

Tarrant County Assistant Criminal District Attorney Sarah Bruner told jurors that in the course of pursuing violent crime cases, prosecutors must sometimes flip one bad guy, “to get a worse one.”

Williams assumes the burden of being a target of retaliatory violence. He testified that, about two months ago, he received a letter from Robinson that contained a threat. In it, Robinson suggested that his codefendant was “safe in jail but not out there,” Williams testified.

Beyond Williams’ testimony, the case was built on corroboration from a police crime lab firearms examiner who reviewed shell casings from the three scenes and determined that they were likely fired from the same guns. Jurors also reviewed video recorded from city cameras attached to poles that showed what police said was the suspects’ vehicle, a Hyundai Sonata, near the scenes.

Tarrant County Assistant Criminal District Attorneys Katie Owens in a closing argument suggested to jurors that they could have an impact on gun violence by returning a guilty verdict.

“How pathetic,” Owens said of Robinson.

In her closing argument, defense attorney Randy Bowers urged jurors to recall the ways in which the defense had demonstrated that Williams had lied. Bowers said Williams had a significant motive to lie in the desire to protect himself and another codefendant, Braylin Brown, his half brother.

“There is doubt all over his testimony, ladies and gentleman,” said Bowers, who represents Robinson with attorney Edwin Youngblood.

Judge Gallagher will on Friday hear testimony in the trial’s punishment phase and will sentence Robinson, who is 21. Robinson did not testify.

Under the law enforcement theory, Robinson was a passenger in a Hyundai Sonata when he shot a man who pulled to the side of a street to fiddle with the unsecured hood of his red Mustang and Moore, who, when her back was struck by a tumbling round from a rifle while she rode in a car, slumped to her brother-in-law in the driver’s seat as he made a turn. Moore’s brother-in-law was also shot.

Late on Jan. 12, 2020, Brown, Williams and Robinson were inside the Sonata, law enforcement authorities alleged.

Robinson shot Moore, an Arlington Martin High School student, in the 5700 block of East Rosedale Street, prosecutors alleged.

A grand jury has also indicted Robinson on murder in connection with the shooting death of Anjonae Eubanks, which occurred three days before Moore was slain.

Beyond Robinson and Williams, Brown has also been indicted on murder in Moore’s killing.

Williams testified that he, Brown and Robinson were in a vehicle and looking for Javien Wright, a Fort Worth rapper known as J Dub with whom Brown had a dispute. Wright, 17, would be shot to death in February 2020 in the front yard of a house in the 1500 block of East Mulkey Street. Wright was documented by police as a member of a Blood gang set in Stop Six.

Christopher Wells, a Fort Worth police gang intelligence section officer, testified that, via self-admission and other evidence, Robinson is a documented Lake Como Crips member and a founder, with Brown, of a subset of that street gang, Brothers Over Everything.

Near his collarbone, Robinson has a tattoo that reads, “Murder Worth.”

With the plan to find Wright abandoned, and for reasons not clear to Williams, Robinson focused on new targets along East Rosedale Street, the codefendant testified.

At a stop sign at Andrew Avenue, Robinson hopped out and used a rifle to shoot a man near a Mustang, Williams told jurors. The group continued on Rosedale, and a white Chevrolet Tahoe pulled next to them. Robinson again left the back seat and opened fire on the sport utility vehicle in which Moore was a passenger, Williams testified.

In his time on the witness stand, Williams was not asked about another shooting that night at the Buttercup Apartments. Fort Worth Police Homicide Unit Detective Ernie Pate later testified that it was his speculation that Williams was the shooter at that scene.

In his first testimony at trial in Tarrant County since he was appointed in November 2021, Dr. Kendall Crowns, the chief medical examiner in Tarrant County, described Moore’s injury.

His predecessor at the office, Dr. Nizam Peerwani, performed the autopsy. Crowns said he reviewed the case and concluded, as Peerwani did, that the bullet that killed Moore cut a path from her back, perforating her liver, kidney, adrenal gland and aorta.

She died of blood loss.