HOUSTON – A Houston man was sentenced to life in prison after being charged with two murders that happened in 2020, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced on Saturday.
Xavier Jerome McConico, 23, was convicted of the murder of 27-year-old Earl Anthony-Blair Foster and charged with fatally shooting 16-year-old Undre Thomas.
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On March 31, 2020, McConico and other people got into an argument and fight inside of a gas station in southwest Houston around 9:15 p.m. in the 2500 block of Almeda Genoa Road. One man punched another man, which left him unconscious.
McConico took out a gun, and Foster and another man, who were not involved in the fight, took that opportunity to run out of the store.
“McConico fired three shots at the two men as they ran into the parking lot and hit Foster in the back of the head. Foster fell and died near the store’s gas pumps. McConico then fled from the gas station,” the DA’s office said.
Houston police officers later obtained surveillance video of the scene and arrested McConico. He admitted he had been involved in the shooting.
Foster graduated from the University of Houston and played football there.
McConico was also charged due to evidence for fatally shooting Undre Thomas, 16, at an apartment complex on Sterlingshire Street in northeast Houston at about 10:55 a.m. on Jan. 30, 2020.
“Witnesses said the teenage victim knew McConico and were both at the complex when a confrontation involving several people turned into a gunfight. Thomas was killed in the crossfire when McConico tried to shoot someone else. Friends attempted to drive him to the hospital, but because his injuries were so bad, they pulled over and called 911 for emergency help,” the DA’s office wrote.
Thomas died at a Heights-area hospital. McConico was charged with his murder four months later. He was already in jail for the other man’s murder.
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Sarah Neyland, who is a chief in the DA’s Organized Crime Division, prosecuted the case. A Harris County jury found McConico guilty of murder after deliberating just 45 minutes.
“This defendant is a very violent gang member who shot an innocent man in the back of the head as he was running away,” Neyland said. “This defendant killed two people within two months—he deserved to be sentenced to life in prison.”