Flint man sentenced to life in prison for murder of his 73-year-old stepfather

TYLER — A Smith County jury sentenced 35-year-old Christopher Earl on Thursday. According to our news partner KETK, officials said that Earl’s mother testified that she heard the victim, her husband, tell Earl that he needed to “get a job.” She said she heard something that sounded like someone getting punched, followed by the victim saying “you hit me.” When she walked in, Earl’s mother testified that she saw Earl hit his stepfather in the face. She said that though she attempted to stop him, Earl punched his step father two more times in the face then pushed him and his mother to the ground. Earl then grabbed a wooden cane nearby, which his stepfather used to help him walk, and hit his stepfather over the head and began kicking him, the DA’s office said. In the process, he reportedly also broke his mother’s arm as she tried to lie across her husband to protect him. Earl’s stepfather sustained two brain hemorrhages and eventually fell into a coma. He died from his injuries roughly three weeks later. An autopsy showed his cause of death to be complications from blunt force trauma with the manner of death as homicide. Earl had three prior felony convictions.