LEAGUE CITY, Texas – A League City man was sentenced to 55 years in prison Thursday for murdering his roommate in July 2020, Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Jack Roady announced.
Investigators said Christian Hickman-Staudt, 26, killed Donald Heard and fled the state immediately after the murder. He was apprehended in Minnesota in October 2021 and extradited to Texas to stand trial.
Recommended Videos
On July 30, 2020, Heard’s mother discovered his body in the bathroom of his home. League City police officers reportedly discovered that Heard’s throat had been cut. Investigators said they recovered several electronic devices from the home and forensic examination of the devices led detectives to Hickman-Staudt.
Hickman-Staudt was identified by family, friends, and neighbors as being a roommate and romantic partner of Heard.
Using records from various digital media sources, detectives Gina Vogel and Ross Haunschild established a timeline of events leading up to the murder and the immediate moments after. Investigators said the last known communication from the victim was a Facebook message he sent to a friend at 11:51 p.m. on July 23. On July 24 at 12:54 a.m., detectives said Hickman-Staudt began making repeated calls to his mother requesting she pick him up and take him to a bus stop. Around 1:15 a.m. that same morning, Hickman-Staudt was reportedly seen on surveillance video at a gas station near the victim’s home. A short time later, Hickman-Staudt’s mother picked him up at an unknown location and drove him to Austin, where he boarded a bus to Minnesota. While there, he lived under aliases until he was caught and identified by Hennepin County law enforcement.
The trial began on Monday, Sept. 25.
Prosecutors Ricque Davis and Casey Kirst presented Facebook records, text messages, and surveillance videos to jurors. When Detective Gina Vogel took the stand, prosecutors played a recorded interview of Hickman-Staudt, in which he allegedly admitted to being present at the time of the murder and created a story about home invaders breaking in to rob and kill Heard. Roady said jurors also learned that Hickman-Staudt’s DNA was found on the handle of a knife found at the scene. The jury was sent to deliberate late in the afternoon on Tuesday and returned a guilty verdict the next day.
During the punishment phase, prosecutors brought up evidence of Hickman-Staudt’s criminal history and continued acts of misconduct at the Galveston County Jail while he was awaiting trial. Chief Assistant District Attorney Davis argued to the jury that Hickman-Staudt is “clearly a dangerous person, and the community will only be safe as long as he is behind bars.”
The jury returned a verdict of 55 years in prison after deliberating Thursday afternoon.
The Galveston County Criminal District Attorney commends detectives Gina Vogel and Ross Haunschild for their work in this case.