A Fort Worth man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty earlier this week of killing his pregnant girlfriend in 2020.
After deliberating for roughly three hours and 30 minutes, a Tarrant County jury found 32-year-old Maurice Kelso Smith guilty of capital murder on Monday. Since the state waived the death penalty, Smith was automatically sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The capital murder charge stemmed from the fact that when Smith shot the victim, Darionne Cherelle Burley, in the head, she had been 24 weeks pregnant with their twin boys, Maurice Kelso Smith Jr. and Marion Kyson Smith.
During the trial, Steve Gebhardt and Gary Smart, defense attorneys representing Smith, argued that prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had intended to kill his children, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Meanwhile, Kate Hinojosa and Allenna Bangs, Tarrant County assistant district attorneys, emphasized Smith’s history of violence towards the victim and considerable efforts to obtain a firearm shortly before the murder.
Smith, who was previously convicted of burglary and unlawful firearm possession, went with his friend Deonte Sneed to a gun show at Will Rogers Auditorium on June 28, a day after he had attempted to buy a weapon but was rejected. As Sneed told the trial court, Smith asked him to purchase a Hi-Point pistol for him, and he did.
The next day, Smith ate at a Fort Worth Waffle House with Burley and then shortly afterward shot her from behind inside his Honda Civic. He ditched the vehicle in Mansfield and carjacked a woman.
When Fort Worth police caught up to Smith at his home, he was reportedly trying to clean the stolen vehicle and destroy evidence, according to CBS News Texas.
“In June 2020, Darionne’s friends and family were concerned for her safety,” said Hinojosa during the trial, according to CBS. “And it turns out their concerns were valid because at the end of the month, she would be dead at the hands of this defendant.”
The Lone Star State has seen a considerable hike in homicides involving multiple family members — referred to as “family annihilation” cases in an analysis from the Indianapolis Star. Between January 1, 2020, and April 30, 2023, a total of 33 incidents occurred in Texas.
As of March 4, there have been a total of 2,280 family violence crimes logged in Dallas in 2024, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. The year prior ended with a total of 13,815 reports.
The 15% rise in murders logged in 2023 compared to 2022 is but one of the consequences of a chronic staffing problem within the Dallas Police Department, which has dampened its impact on violent crime. There are roughly 3,000 officers in the field, yet a City report recommended a force of 4,000 officers in order to adequately address public safety needs in a city the size of Dallas.
For instance, compared to Fort Worth’s city center, which is patrolled by a dedicated police unit and private security officers, Downtown Dallas regularly puts up higher rates of crime, especially in auto theft and assaults.
DPD will only have a budget of $654 million this fiscal year after City leaders recently opted to spend considerably less taxpayer money on police than their counterparts in other high-crime cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
