HOUSTON – A man was sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting the father of an 18-year-old whom he had a fistfight with a day earlier in southwest Houston, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a news release.
“Having a gun means a person is taking on more responsibility, not getting more rights, and no one person should be judge, jury and executioner,” Ogg said. “There is absolutely no reason this argument had to be settled with a fatal shooting.”
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Cecil Artelle Turner, 27, was found guilty by a Harris County jury of fatally shooting 36-year-old Anthony Mareno Jr. in May 2021.
Turner got into a fistfight with Mareno’s 18-year-old son one day before the murder. Turner and the young man lived in the same apartment complex in the 2500 block of Westridge Street near NRG Park.
The following day, Mareno confronted Turner as he drove into the parking lot, and he had a unique birthmark on his cheek. The DA’s office said Turner was driving a bright blue Dodge Charger, and he stopped and got out of his car with two guns.
Mareno got closer to the man and had his hands in his pockets as he spoke to Turner. Authorities said Turner took out a gun and shot Mareno nine times, including in the back while he was faced down on the floor.
Witnesses told the DA’s office that Turner got into his car and drove around Mareno then left. Surveillance video showed him looking through his cellphone as he got in the car.
Houston police officers were dispatched to the location. Mareno was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Turner turned himself in to police the following day.
Harris County Assistant District Attorneys Brett Batchelor and Elizabeth Liberman prosecuted the case.
“The victim was trying to solve the conflict with a conversation and the defendant decided to solve the conflict with violence, which is how he tries to solve all of his conflicts,” Liberman said. “What is truly awful is that you can see on the surveillance video that the victim’s widow was trying to render aid, and his two children had to witness their father dying.”