A would-be buyer in a planned drug deal who admitted to shooting the seller during an LSD deal gone wrong will spend 25 years in prison for the act.
According to a charging affidavit, Jace Weeks, 24, admitted to cops in Houston, Texas, that he shot Sam Kyle James, 31, at the victim’s apartment complex on April 30, 2018.
“This was a pointless murder that didn’t have to happen,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement published Sunday. “By getting justice for the victim’s family, they are able to have some closure and move forward with their grief.”
Weeks’ co-defendant Devyn Durham was acquitted of murder in June.
According to court documents, the victim’s girlfriend saw him texting back and forth with a male user whose screen name was Devyn.
James, the purported seller in the LSD deal, reportedly said he was a meeting a man from Lufkin. Prosecutors said that Weeks was from the small town of Huntington, which is some 10 miles west of Lufkin. Both cities are located around 140 northeast of Houston.
According to the complaint, James told his girlfriend to come looking for him if he did not return in 15 minutes after the drug deal was supposed to happen. After that 15 minutes, she went to check on James and arrived in the parking garage to find someone doing CPR on him.
Prosecutors said that Weeks shot James in the head with a .22-caliber rifle before the drug deal could happen.
Cops said they reviewed surveillance footage and learned the suspect vehicle seen at the apartment complex belonged to a male relative of Durham’s. Durham had been driving it on April 18, 2018, officers said, citing Durham’s grandmother.
A witness described driving with Weeks and Durham to Houston. He said it was Durham’s idea to bring the gun in case something went wrong. The firearm had been in the trunk when they traveled to Houston, but Durham told Weeks to get it out of the trunk as they pulled into the parking garage garage to meet James, according to the complaint.
But by Weeks’ own account, it was he who shot James.
“Defendant Weeks said that when [James] opened the passenger door of the vehicle he shot [James],” authorities wrote.
According to documents, Durham admitted driving from Lufkin to Houston to buy drugs from James. He said he negotiated the price, but it was Weeks who opened fire.
“Defendant Durham stated that [James] then opened the passenger door of the vehicle and defendant Jace Weeks then shot [James],” documents stated.
Weeks is getting 465 days time-served credit for his sentence.
“It was very important to the victim’s family that the killer face justice, and he took responsibility for his actions and admitted to how everything happened,” Assistant District Attorney Bryan Honeycutt said. “The family of [Sam] Kyle James has waited very patiently for the past five years, and we were able to negotiate an appropriate sentence.”
