HOUSTON – A man who stabbed another man to death while he was sitting on a toilet at a west Houston apartment has pled guilty.
Raymond Lincoln was sentenced to life in prison by a Harris County judge Wednesday for the stabbing death of Erick Shears.
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Shears was found dead with multiple stab wounds inside his apartment on Fountainview Drive in January 2013.
For 10 years, the case went cold until DNA evidence connected Lincoln to the crime. He was charged in April 2023.
Shears told his family he was bisexual and his uncle, Curtis Anderson, knew about the man accused of his murder getting involved in his life.
“From what he told me about this guy and him meeting this guy, I told him I wouldn’t mess with that type of guy,” Anderson said in 2023. “He was telling me about this dude, and he’s already telling me that the dude was trying to boss him around.”
After family members hadn’t heard from Shears for a few days, Anderson went to his West Houston apartment on Fountainview Drive and made the gruesome discovery.
“When the door flew open, I looked down, and I see blood on the floor,” Anderson said. “He was laying in the tub, crossways in the tub. I seen his feet first. I [thought] that he fell off the toilet.”
Shears was in the early stages of decomposition, dead in his own apartment, but no one was held responsible.
That was until 2023 when homicide detectives with the Houston Police Department reviewed the case and found the DNA evidence linking Lincoln to the murder.
In addition to messages found between the men implying a relationship, Lincoln may have been staying with Shears for some period of time, according to a source close to the investigation. Lincoln allegedly claimed unwanted sexual advances, which led to a fight and struggle over a knife.
The circumstances of the 2013 murder are extremely similar to those of a 1992 murder for which Lincoln was convicted, according to the source. The victim in that case was also a male and Lincoln also claimed unwanted sexual advances.
While Lincoln was in jail for unrelated charges of aggravated assault, Houston police said in a news release that homicide detectives interviewed him about Shears’ death and he allegedly admitted to being involved.