FORT WORTH, Texas — A Tarrant County jury has found 24-year-old Anthony Bell-Johnson guilty of killing two family members during a 2022 shooting in northwest Fort Worth, sentencing him to two life terms in prison and ordering him to pay $20,000 in fines.
Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Bill Vassar and Melinda Hogan prosecuted the case.
The shooting occurred on August 28, 2022, when Bell-Johnson and several acquaintances drove into a neighborhood and parked near a home on Steel Dust Drive. Prosecutors said the group sat outside the residence for three minutes and 19 seconds, watching as teenagers and children played inside an open garage.
Bell-Johnson and co-defendant Jay Shawn Nixon-Clark then exited the vehicle wearing masks and armed with high-powered automatic rifles. They ran toward the home and opened fire. Evidence presented at trial showed Bell-Johnson fired at least 16 rounds.
“He absolutely knew what he was doing,” Vassar told jurors during the trial.
After the shooting, the men returned to their vehicle and fled the scene.
Seventeen-year-old Jamarrien Monroe and his 5-year-old cousin, Rayshard Javon Scott, were killed. Other family members were injured, including Monroe’s 18-month-old son.
“They executed two of those children,” Hogan told the jury.
Five days after the shooting, investigators found the keys to the getaway car in Bell-Johnson’s pocket.
“The evidence is overwhelming,” Vassar said. “This family has been waiting for justice for 3 1/2 years. Let’s give them some justice.”
Co-defendant Nixon-Clark, now 20, was convicted of capital murder last year and sentenced to life in prison.
District Attorney investigators Scott Giovennelli and Danny Nutt, along with Victim Coordinator Imelda Lopez, also assisted in the case. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office credited the Fort Worth Police Department for its work in the investigation.
