The Justice Journal: Vol. 78 (English)

The Justice Journal: Vol. 78

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

State vs. Diarielle McShane

Capital Murder

Prosecutor: Chelsea McHenry

DA Investigator: Martin Bosse, John Valdez, with assistance from Cliff Davison

Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department -- Detective Joshua Romero

The defendant and victim met up for a prostitution deal. The defendant proceeded to tie up the victim, drive her to an ATM, rob her, and then killed her in a field.

After the State requested further DNA testing on the case, the defendant’s DNA profile got a hit to an unsolved murder also with the Dallas Police Department

GUILTY and sentenced to LIFE in prison.

State vs. Diarielle McShane

Capital Murder

Prosecutor: Chelsea McHenry

DA Investigators: Martin Bosse, John Valdez, with assistance from Cliff Davison

Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department – Detective Jake Morgan

After receiving the DNA hit to this previously unsolved murder, Detective Jake Morgan with the Dallas Police Department worked to build a case against the defendant.

The investigation revealed that the defendant broke into his upstairs neighbor’s apartment and murdered her with a “unknown bladed weapon.” The defendant left a bloody shoeprint at the scene that matched the same type of shoes he was wearing in a recent arrest. The victim was a refugee from Iran and lived alone with her young daughter.

GUILTY and sentenced to LIFE in prison.

State vs. Devonte Webber

Murder

Lead: Rachel Warner

2nd Chair: Andrew James

DA Investigator: Ron Cathcart & Eric Knight

DA Paralegal: Maria Cantrell

Investigating Agency: Texas Department of Public Safety – Dallas, Fort Worth Police, Grand Prairie Police

Special thank you to Claudia Arnick

On December 28, 2024, around 1:30 pm, Fort Worth police vehicles tried to stop a black Jeep Wagoneer on I-20 southwest of Fort Worth. The vehicle slowed and almost came to a stop before fleeing and starting a chase that would last 45 minutes and cover 55 miles, finally ending in a deadly head-on crash just northwest of the intersection of Inwood and the I-35E service road in Dallas.

The entire evading and the crash were recorded on video by a FWPD helicopter. FWPD had the helicopter in the air and initially attempted to stop the Wagoneer because days earlier on Christmas Eve, the defendant was caught skip scanning a few hundred dollars’ worth of groceries at the Albertson’s in Burleson. When the store’s loss prevention employee attempted to stop the defendant from leaving the store with the stolen groceries, the defendant said, “you’ll move when you find out what is in my pocket” and then pushed his way past the loss prevention employee. That employee called 911 and reported the licenses plate of the vehicle the defendant took off in, which was as black Jeep Wagoneer. A nearby Burleson police officer quickly got behind the Wagoneer. The license plate came back as a stolen from a Mitsubishi in March of 2024. The Burleson officer tried to stop the Wagoneer however it fled at speeds of over 100 mph, driving recklessly and putting countless other drivers in danger for about 20 minutes. Burleson PD could no longer keep up and sent out information to DFW law enforcement agencies for the defendant and the vehicle.

On Christmas Day 2024, Grand Prairie police located the Wagoneer and attempted to stop it. The vehicle pulled over but took off as the GPPD officers were approaching it on foot. The Wagoneer fled for 15 to 20 minutes from GPPD again driving at speeds of around 100 mph. He drove from Grand Prairie to Lewisville on SH161 and then I-35E before traffic caused GPPD officers to end the chase as they could not keep up.

Those prior crimes are why FWPD got a helicopter up to locate the vehicle on December 28, 2024. Early on in the evading on the 28th, the defendant drove onto the Chisholm Trail Toll Road and DPS highway patrol troopers got involved. DPS chased the Wagoneer across the metroplex before executing a PIT maneuver as the defendant was cutting across the median to exit the main lanes of I-35E just south of Inwood. The PIT maneuver caused the Wagoneer to spin around and come to a stop facing the wrong way on the service road. The defendant then took off the wrong way driving 23 seconds in the wrong direction and through the Inwood intersection at speeds up to 70 miles per hour before crashing head on into the victim’s Audi sedan. The defendant then got out of the driver’s seat of the Wagoneer and started walking away before DPS detained him at gunpoint. The Wagoneer was confirmed stolen out of Chicago, where the defendant is from.

The jury returned a guilty verdict after deliberating for 15 minutes and a punishment verdict after deliberating for 43 minutes

GUILTY and sentenced to LIFE in prison.

State vs. Antoine Dominique Stevenson

Murder

Evading Arrest with a Previous Conviction

Lead: Jui Kothare

2nd Chair: Clint Stiffler

DA Investigator: Thomas Naulty

Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department

The victim was sitting in the driver’s seat of his SUV in the parking lot of a Motel 6 in North Dallas when the defendant walked up to the driver’s side window, punched him in the face, threatened him with a gun, and then shot him. The defendant then took off in his girlfriend’s car back to the apartment complex where he was staying. The victim died after being taken to the hospital.

The shooting was captured on surveillance video at the Motel 6. Dallas Homicide detectives and assisting officers were able to pull the license plate of the getaway car on Flock cameras and trace the car’s GPS to the apartment complex. Police conducted surveillance at the apartment complex the next day and were able to locate the defendant who had been nervously pacing through the parking lot for several hours. When the officers tried to arrest him, the defendant took off, running into the office of the apartment complex. He was eventually tasered and detained. The defendant was interviewed but insisted that the person in the video of the shooting was not him. He attempted to blame the murder on the passenger in the victim’s SUV. Later while being booked into jail, the defendant told the detective that he shot the victim because the victim had a gun.

At the time of the offense, the defendant was on probation for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison at the revocation hearing. However, he continued to insist that he was not the shooter in the video.

At trial, he changed his strategy to self-defense and alleged that the victim had a gun at the time. There were no guns found in the car with the victim. While the victim did have lengthy criminal history, the State located and subpoenaed the passenger in the victim’s car who testified that the victim did not have a gun. He also testified that they were there to buy drugs and that the defendant punched and shot the victim unprovoked.

After an hour and 45 minutes, the jury came back with a guilty verdict and the judge sentenced him 45 years in prison for the murder charge and one year in state jail for evading with a previous conviction.

GUILTY and sentenced to 45 years in prison + 1 year in state jail.

State vs. Yostin Reanos Velasquez

Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child Under the age of 14

Lead: Delayna Griffin

2nd Chair: Marquita Ruff

DA Investigator: Crystal Gregan

DA Victim Advocate: Flor de la Fuente

Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department

The evidence showed the defendant engaged in an ongoing sexual relationship with a child over an extended period of time. The case involved grooming dynamics and a child who believed she was in a relationship with the defendant and did not believe he had done anything wrong. Through the work of law enforcement, forensic interviewers and expert testimony explaining child abuse dynamics, the jury was able to understand the evidence and returned a guilty verdict.

Thank you to the investigators, victim advocate, forensic interviewers and expert therapist for their work on this case.

GUILTY and sentenced to 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

State vs. Jihad Thomas

Aggravated Robbery x 2

Evading Arrest with a Vehicle

Lead: Loren Collins

2nd Chair: Krystal Biggins

DA Investigator: Lt. Michael Swain

Investigating Agency: Dallas Police Department

On December 6, 2023, the defendant, Jihad Thomas and co-defendant, Travion Williams, robbed two people at gunpoint at 2pm outside of a popular downtown restaurant. They took personal property from one of the victims and then Thomas chased down one of the other victims to get the keys to a Corvette Stingray. Both defendants jumped into the vehicle with the stolen property and drove away. One of the victims was able to immediately get the license plate to the police which led to a high-speed chase through the streets of the southern sector of Dallas County. The defendant hit speeds as high as 147 mph during midday traffic. Despite their efforts to evade police, they were apprehended withing about 45 minutes of the initial aggravated robbery.

GUILTY and sentenced to 12 years in prison on Aggravated robbery and 10 years in prison on Evading.

State vs. Eusebio Cruz

Sexual Assault

Lead: Trey Stock

2nd Chair: Deborah Bankhead

DA Investigator: Abigail Cruz

DA Victim Advocate: Andriana Sellers

Investigating Agency: Garland Police Department

The victim met the defendant through a dating app in March of 2024. They agreed to a first date at Gloria’s Restaurant in Firewheel Mall in Garland. The victim and defendant ordered sangria swirl margaritas at the bar while waiting for their table. The victim had little to no memory of the evening after about ten minutes at the bar. Video from Gloria’s showed that the victim had four swirl margaritas prior to ordering dinner. It also shows that as the evening progressed the victim and defendant became very affectionate at the table. Video from the outside of Gloria’s and from the victim’s home showed the victim was unsteady while walking. The defendant told the Garland detective that the two had consensual sex at the victim’s home and went to sleep. The victim had no memory of that sexual assault. She did remember waking up just prior to midnight and the defendant sexually assaulting her. The defendant denied that allegation.

The jury convicted the defendant of the first sexual assault. The jury returned a not guilty verdict on the second sexual assault that was recalled by the victim,

GUILTY and sentenced to 10 years in prison probated for 10 years.