Upshur County Man’s Conviction Stands

TEXARKANA — An appeals court has upheld the capital murder conviction of an Upshur County man.The 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana has affirmed the conviction of Jonathan Ray Shepherd, 35. He admitted to killing Cheyenne Green on September 26, 2013 in the stadium parking lot during a football game at Gilmer High School. Since the district attorney was not seeking the death penalty, Shepherd was sentenced to life in prison, without parole. In his appeal, Shepherd maintained the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on a lesser offense of felony murder. The appeals court said the district court did not err and upheld the conviction.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Shepherd met Green in the parking lot during halftime of a football game to give their then two-year-old child to her. A witness told police the couple was arguing about custody of the child. In video presented in court, Shepherd tells Gilmer Police Department Captain Ron Benge he got in Green’s car with their toddler son in the back seat, pointed a gun at her, and told her to drive the car. When Green got out of the car to flee, Shepherd said in the video, he fired the gun at her. He then got out of the car and walked around where he found her on the ground, he said. “I remember she was sitting there screaming and crying, so I discharged my firearm,” Shepherd said of the second two shots that were fired at Green, killing her.