HOUSTON — A Houston man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a University of Houston football player and a 16-year-old boy in two separate murders.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office called Xavier Jerome McConico, 23, a very violent gang member who "deserved to be sentenced to life in prison.”
In January 2020, McConico shot Undre Thomas, 16, at an apartment complex on Sterlingshire Street in northeast Houston, according to the DA's office. Witnesses said Thomas knew McConico and both were at the apartment complex when a confrontation involving several people turned into a gunfight. Thomas was killed in the crossfire when McConico tried to shoot someone else.
The DA's office said friends attempted to drive Thomas to the hospital but because his injuries were so bad, they instead pulled over and called 911. Thomas was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Two months later, McConico and several other people got into a heated argument that turned into a fistfight inside a gas station on Almeda-Genoa in southwest Houston. During the fight, McConico reportedly pulled out a handgun, prompting Earl Anthony-Blair Foster -- who was not a part of the fight -- to run out of the store. McConico fired three shots at Foster and another man as they ran into the parking lot and one of the shots hit Foster in the back of the head, the DA's office said. He died near the store's gas pumps.
Foster had a degree in sociology from the University of Houston where he played football on a scholarship.
McConico got away after the shooting, but the detectives with the Houston Police Department were able to pull surveillance video of the shooting and he was ultimately arrested. He later admitted to his role in the shooting, the DA's office said.
It wasn't until McConico was in jail for the death of Foster that investigators tied him to the death of Thomas.
A jury only took 45 minutes to find McConico guilty of murder. He opted to have his punishment decided by a judge who handed down the life sentence.
