Cedric Deshun Alexander, left inset, was sentenced for gang violence that claimed the life of Jermaine Aldridge, right inset. (Crime scene photo and mug shot from Texarkana Texas Police Department; Victim photo from his obituary)
A "hit man" will spend the rest of his life in prison for a spate of gang bloodshed in Texas that claimed the life of a man shot in the back in a restaurant parking lot in a "murder-for-hire plot."
Cedric Deshun Alexander, 33, learned his fate on Thursday, online court records show. In addition to the life sentence, he was ordered to pay $10,000 in fines. He was convicted of multiple counts of organizing in criminal activity.
The case was so scary that a police detective testified she had a "hit" put out for her that required a monthslong security detail, Bowie County First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told Texarkana Today on Thursday.
"This local band of violent criminals hired Cedric Alexander from Memphis to torment our community and carry out a spree of homicidal violence," Crisp told the outlet. "Far from demonstrating remorse or asking for mercy, Alexander boasted of his lawless disregard for humanity on social media, calling himself a 'hit man.' Thankfully, state and local law enforcement apprehended and collected the necessary evidence that allowed a jury of our citizens to swiftly convict Alexander and assess him the maximum penalty allowed by law for each charge."
Alexander was among seven members of two gangs arrested in June 2022 during an 18-month police investigation in the Texarkana area after the "murder-for-hire plot" of Jermaine Aldridge in a Chili's parking lot on Dec. 30, 2020.
Police found Aldridge lying between two cars at about 4:30 p.m. He had been shot once in the back and died there, police said when they announced Alexander's arrest. The leader of the gang thought Aldridge had stolen $100,000 of his drug money, Texarkana Today reported. The gang leader was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the case, the news outlet reported.
Alexander and another man, both from Mississippi, were hired to shoot Aldridge, then went back to Mississippi before Alexander returned to Texarkana in July 2021 to help gang members "create utter chaos," Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter said during closing arguments, the Texarkana Gazette reported.
Authorities said the killing was part of other gang violence that included the murder of a 35-year-old man as he sat in a vehicle on July 15, 2021, minutes after another man had been tied up in his home and robbed at gunpoint by several men, police said in a news release.
"I'm very proud of the extraordinary work of our detectives," Texarkana Texas Police Chief Kevin Shutte said in the news release. "These were not easy cases by any standard. They had to pull out just about every tool in their investigative toolbox to finally be able to get to the bottom of what happened and discover the truth."