The Justice Journal: Vol. 40

The Justice Journal: Vol. 40

October 30, 2023

A look At cases recently prosecuted by the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney's Office.

State vs. Khennedi Thorton

Capital Murder

Lead: Drew Taylor

2nd Chair: Emily Antram

DA Investigator: John Davison

Investigating Agency: Cedar Hill Police Department

On July 28, 2020, the victim, Roman Caldwell, stumbled to his neighbor’s house with a gunshot wound to his side. On the 911 call, Caldwell identified the Instagram name of the person who robbed and shot him. Cedar Hill police got a search warrant for that Instagram name and found that it belonged to Cailyn McCurdy. Those records showed that McCurdy and another person, Travion Hanson, had planned to rob the victim of his money and marijuana. Detectives got a search warrant for Cailyn McCurdy’s phone and found a text message to the defendant, Khennedi Thorton, right before the 911 call instructing Thorton to tell Travion and Eric to come in to start the robbery. Detectives spoke with Thorton who admitted to receiving that text and to telling Eric and Trey (her boyfriend) to go in.

Thorton was admonished several times by the State that proceeding to trial was not in her best interest but she maintained that she didn’t feel like she did anything wrong.

 GUILTY and sentenced to LIFE in prison without the possibility of parole.

State vs. Leroy Hughes

Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child

Lead: Amanda Boylan

2nd Chair: Summer Elmazi

DA Investigator: Tom McGrath & Joe Mundy

DA Victim Advocate: Jessica Rivera

Investigating Agency: Mesquite Police Department

The defendant was convicted of continuously sexually assaulting a child under the age of 14.

GUILTY and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

State vs. Kendra Hughey

Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon

Lead: Sarah Beth DeLay

2nd Chair: Kristen Jackson

DA Investigator: Mikey Csaszar

Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department

The defendant was riding in a car being driven by the victim. The victim, who had known the defendant since she was a child, began teasing the defendant about her drug usage and this escalated into an argument. The defendant took a box cutter and cut the victim’s throat from behind while he was still driving and then stabbed him twice more in the arm and hand. The defendant fled to a DART station and told officers that the victim had actually assaulted her and denied stabbing him. The victim was hospitalized, and testimony and medical records showed that the defendant narrowly missed the victim’s jugular vein. At trial, the defendant took the stand and told a completely different story, which did not persuade the jury.

GUILTY and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

State vs. Bryan Huff

Murder

Lead: Samantha Jarvis

2nd Chair: Patrick Capetillo

DA Investigator: Eugene Reyes

DA Victim Advocate: Sandra Walker

Investigating Agency: Mesquite Police Department

The defendant, Bryan Huff, and the deceased victim, Terrence Averett, were strangers. On the night of the offense, the defendant ultimately shot and killed the victim following a dispute between a couple of people at an apartment where they were hanging out.  

911 was called, and officers arrived and tried to resuscitate the victim. Officers performed CPR on the victim for three minutes before realizing the victim had a gun in the pocket of his shorts. The Defendant fled the scene but was arrested a week later by the US Marshals. The murder weapon was found in a field next to a residential neighborhood. All cartridge casings and fired projectiles recovered during the investigation were compared and found to have been fired from the same gun. The victim was shot nine times: six in the back (and back of legs), twice on the side, and once in the abdomen.

At trial, the defendant admitted on the stand to killing the victim but testified that he shot the victim in self-defense and to protect his brother. He told the jury the victim was reaching into his pocket to draw his weapon when he fired. The defendant said he “sensed” his brother was in fear and needed to protect him. After two days of testimony, the Jury returned in two and a half hours with a guilty verdict. Punishment was agreed with a waiver of appeal. The defendant had no prior felony convictions.

GUILTY and sentenced to 15 years in prison, waived appeal.

State vs. Garrett Scott Hunter

Aggravated Assault with Serious Bodily Injury

Lead: Julie Johnson

2nd Chair: Mackensie Pfleger

DA Investigator: Kyle Bratcher

Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department

The defendant became angry when his girlfriend would not pick him up in the cold.  He came to her job at the Waffle House and shot her in the chest while in her car.  At trial, the defendant argued the gun accidentally discharged. The defendant placed numerous jail calls to the victim within hours of the shooting while she was still hospitalized, suffering from injuries including a perforated lung.  Using the jail calls, the State was able to establish the defendant had intentionally shot the victim, rather than accidentally discharging the firearm as he later claimed.  At the time of the offense, the defendant was on felony probation for assaulting a relative in a separate incident. 

GUILTY and sentenced to 20 years in prison – Stacked with 10 years in prison on Assault Family Violence Impeding probation revocation.

State vs. Mayra Salazar

Manslaughter

Lead: Megan Bisacca

2nd Chair: Adam Seiffert

DA Investigator: Jesse Cantu

Investigating Agency: Dallas County Sheriff’s Office

On January 5, 2019, around 2:15 AM, the defendant and victim were coworkers going from Baby Dolls to Bucks Wild. The defendant was drunk, tried to take an exit at over 75mph across three lanes of traffic, and rolled the vehicle into a concrete pillar on the passenger side. The victim was found seat belted in the passenger seat while the defendant was found unrestrained in the backseat. Dallas Fire and Rescue and hospital records gave conflicting information on the identity of the driver and passenger, but eyewitnesses at the scene recounted cutting the victim out of the passenger seatbelt and doing CPR. The victim had bruising consistent with a passenger seatbelt. The defendant’s blood alcohol content was 0.236 at 3:12 AM and 0.112 at 8:25 AM, the defendant also had cocaine in her system. The defendant had no criminal history but had 8 bond violations related to consuming alcohol. The defendant’s last bond violation was in May of 2021 which led the jury to give her a chance at probation.

GUILTY and sentenced to 10 years in prison probated for 10 years and 180 days in jail.

State vs. Patrick Philpot

Forgery

Lead: Aja Reed

2nd Chair: Jamie Young

DA Investigator: Cliff Davison & Bill Martinez

Investigating Agency: Dallas County Sheriff’s Office

The defendant presented a fraudulent cashier’s check to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office for over 1 million dollars to bond out his friend on 4 charges (murder, aggravated robbery, robbery, and attempting to take a weapon from a police officer). The plan was to bond his friend out, get passports, and flee. The cashier’s check was purported to come from the “PacPhil Bank.” Prior to posting the bond, the defendant made representations to ADA Loren Collins and Judge Brandon Birmingham that he was a lawyer representing his friend and that he was a bail bondsman. He also attempted to bribe ADA Keena Miller to get the cases against his friend dismissed. The defendant testified that the PacPhil bank is a real bank but admitted that he printed the check at OfficeMax.

GUILTY and sentenced by the judge to 2 years in prison probated for 5 years.