BEAUMONT, Texas — A 25-year-old Port Arthur man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for killing one man and wounding another using a handgun converted to shoot like a machine gun.
Deon Patrick Williams, 25, of Port Arthur, was sentenced by 252nd District Court Judge Raquel West after he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting one man and wounding another in 2021 after the pair turned down his request for a cigarette, according to a news release from the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office.
He was sentenced to 45 years for the murder of Derrick Pitre and 20 years for aggravated assault for wounding the other man, according to the release.
He had faced up to 99 years in prison if convicted by a jury.
The sentences will run concurrently and Williams won't be eligible for parole until he has served half of his sentence.
Williams approached Pitre and the other man on August 16, 2021, in the parking lot of a Port Arthur convenience store and asked them for a cigarette.
When they declined to give him one, Williams pulled out a Glock handgun outfitted with a "switch" and began firing in full auto at them. Pitre was hit seven times and died a week later while the other man was struck once.
A "switch" is a device that, when attached to a handgun, converts it to shoot as a fully automatic machine gun. Possessing a switch, even without a gun, to attach it to, is considered by the BATF as possessing an illegal machine gun, according to file stories.
When Port Arthur Police arrested Williams the next day he told them that "those guys disrespected me" according to the news release.
“The Defendant’s actions in this case were a display of monumental senselessness, a man lost his life over something as trivial as a cigarette,” Assistant District Attorney, Tommy Coleman was quoted as saying in the news release.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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