A Texas man received a 40-year prison sentence on Friday, Nov. 1, for the fatal shooting of his stepdaughter’s former boyfriend, who had threatened to release a nude image of her.
Jessie Clifford Brown, 42, has been convicted of murder in connection with the 2015 death of John Allen Franco, according to KLTV.
On the evening of May 20, 2015, at approximately 10 p.m., Franco, 24, was found in his truck located in a ravine in Liberty City, suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.
He passed away at the location.
A woman in Franco’s vehicle reported to police that a blue truck passed them just before the shooting and then pulled over to the side of the road, according to an arrest warrant referenced by the Longview News-Journal. Three men exited the truck and approached them.
She mentioned that Franco sped away while the men pursued him. At a certain moment, Franco came to a halt, prompting one of the men to leap from the truck and dash towards their vehicle.
Following the incident, Brownlee noted that numerous names were mentioned as potential suspects, along with a flurry of rumors circulating. “The investigator pursued those rumors, attempting to verify if anyone fit the descriptions of the original suspects, conducted cell phone forensics, and ultimately, we exhausted our leads.”
In 2017, a witness stepped forward to inform authorities that Brown, along with two other men, was implicated in the shooting, as reported by the News-Journal, referencing an arrest warrant.
According to the warrant, one of the men reportedly informed the police that Brown “intended to confront Franco due to Franco’s threats to reveal nude images of (Brown’s) stepdaughter.”
Brownlee claims that Franco sent a message to the stepdaughter containing a nude image, which prosecutors interpret as a threat to share similar images of her.
Brown was taken into custody on October 18, 2018.