A Denton County teenager originally charged with murder in a 2023 shooting was sentenced to four years in prison after a jury convicted him of a lesser offense.
A jury on Monday found 19-year-old Alec Adamson guilty of aggravated assault in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old David Pleasant during a drug deal outside a Little Elm park. Adamson had faced a first-degree murder charge and a possible 20-year sentence, but jurors deliberated about 13 hours before reaching a compromise verdict and sentence, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported.
Adamson has already spent more than two years in the Denton County Jail while awaiting trial and was given credit for that time. He is immediately eligible for parole, according to reporting by the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Sheriff records show Adamnson was re-booked just a few days before the trial’s conclusion. His new mugshot shows an older appearance and a shorter haircut than the previous images that circulated in the press since his arrest and during the intervening period.
Alec Adamson guilty of aggravated assault in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old David Pleasant
The Pleasant family said before the trial that they did not expect Adamson to serve a life sentence, but they had hoped he would serve more than the time already spent in jail. After sentencing, Pleasant’s mother, Aisha Pleasant, gave an emotional statement, telling Adamson, “Surprisingly, I didn’t hate you,” adding that her son would have forgiven him, per the Record-Chronicle.
Prosecutors had asked the jury to impose the maximum sentence, with First Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck later saying the verdict did not make sense. “If this was a crime, and if there was no defense, then this is a murder,” Beck reportedly said, adding that she and the family were disappointed in the outcome.
Defense attorney Sarah Roland argued that the jury’s decision was a compromise between jurors who leaned guilty and those who leaned not guilty, in a post-trial statement to the Record-Chronicle.
Court records show Adamson was arrested in February 2023 and charged with murder along with another teenager, Mason Schiller. Police alleged the pair had arranged a drug deal with Pleasant when the shooting occurred. Surveillance video reportedly captured the moment Pleasant was shot in the back of the head as he fled a vehicle, according to FOX 4.
During the sentencing phase, the jury heard about Adamson’s past citations, his alleged possession of drugs and a firearm, and his apparently callous demeanor in jail phone calls. His defense presented evidence of his compliance with bond conditions, steady employment during a period when he was released from jail before his conviction, and participation in a Lewisville church where he was baptized this summer.
Despite the aggravated assault conviction, prosecutors reportedly stressed that Adamson had opportunities to change course before the shooting, citing the overdose of a close friend. Beck said she feared Adamson’s light sentence contravened “what society wants.”