Inset left: Adiah Roberson (San Antonio Police Department). Inset right: Daniel Shrewsbury (Obituary). Background: The Sonic Drive-In where Roberson killed Shrewsbury in San Antonio, Tex. (Google Maps).
A teenage Texas woman will spend the next several decades behind bars for shooting and killing a beloved manager at a fast food drive-in after an argument over using forged money.
Earlier this month, Adiah Roberson, 19, pleaded no contest to counts of murder, assault causing bodily injury, and forgery.
On Friday, as part of a plea deal, the defendant was sentenced to 40 years in prison on the murder charge and 20 years in prison on the assault charge. No sentence was issued on the forgery charge. Both sentences, however, will run concurrently, or at the same time.
The underlying incident occurred on July 7, 2024, at a Sonic Drive-In on Babcock Road in San Antonio, as Law&Crime previously reported.
On the day in question, Roberson was with a group of friends who tried to use fake money to pay for their purchase, according to the San Antonio Police Department. In turn, Daniel Shrewsbury, 33, the manager, confronted the would-be fakers and denied the transaction.
After being confronted, Roberson and Shrewsbury fiercely argued in the restaurant's kitchen but, eventually, the group used real money to buy their food. On the way out, however, Roberson took money from a tip jar. Shrewsbury then followed the trio out as they were leaving to take a photo of their license plate. Joshua Joseph, 29, who was driving, got upset and told Shrewsbury he was about to get shot. That's when Roberson got out of the car, took out her gun and shot the manager.
Shrewsbury then staggered back inside the Sonic where he collapsed. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the crime.
The victim's mother wrote on her son's obituary tribute page that he loved his job as a Sonic manager and all of his employees.
"Daniel was a jokester who made everyone he worked with happy, and they all loved him so much," she wrote.
On July 16, 2024, police issued an arrest warrant on murder and forgery of a government document charges for Joseph and Roberson.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Joseph a month later.
While on the lam, the Texas Department of Public Safety placed Roberson on its "Most Wanted" list. The defendant was arrested in October 2024 at an apartment complex in Dallas – some 275 miles northeast of San Antonio. She was only 17 years old at the time.
"I apologize for the actions of somebody who happened to be with me, and none of that should have happened," Joseph told reporters after his arrest. "That person made a decision they shouldn't have made."
Authorities later dropped the charges against Joseph.
The result did not come without consternation.
During the sentencing hearing, Bexar County 226th Criminal District Court Judge Benjamin Robertson told the state and the defense that 40 years did not seem sufficient for Roberson's crimes, according to a courtroom report by San Antonio-based ABC affiliate KSAT.
In the end, the judge "reluctantly" agreed to accept the plea deal.
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