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Crimes

In the early hours of October 31st, 2020, 19-year-old Southern Methodist University student Robert Jaden Urrea was walking near Harwood and Jackson Streets in downtown Dallas.

Surveillance footage captured a white Ford Taurus approaching him. Urrea turned toward the car, likely unaware of the danger that loomed. In an instant, a gunshot rang out, and he collapsed to the ground. The vehicle sped away, leaving no immediate trace of the perpetrator.

On November 14th, 2020, at around 8:33 p.m., 36-year-old Adam Gautreau was near Stemmons Freeway at Empire Central Drive in Dallas.

Someone in a black Chevrolet Tahoe called Gautreau over. Moments later, he was shot nine times in what appeared to be a random act of violence.

Barely thirty minutes later, another victim was targeted. At 9:02 p.m., the exact black Tahoe that approached Gautreau pulled up beside 57-year-old Kenneth Hamilton as he was in his vehicle sitting at a stoplight at South Beckley Avenue and Clarendon Drive. Without warning, shots were fired, and Hamilton was killed.

But the bloodshed didn’t stop there. On November 16th, another person was shot in Dallas, but they survived.

Two days later, on November 18th, 2020, firefighters in Celina, Texas, responded to a house fire on Anvil Drive. Inside, they made a gruesome discovery: the body of 60-year-old Blair Carter.

Witnesses reported seeing a man dressed in black fleeing the scene with an unknown object moments before the fire consumed the house.

They were able to describe the suspicious man’s vehicle. Later that day, authorities arrested 31-year-old Jeremy Harris.

Carter was the father of Harris’s ex-girlfriend and the grandfather of Harris’s children.

Arrest and Conviction

Harris was soon connected to the three random murders in the weeks prior.

A search of his residence uncovered black rims matching those seen on surveillance footage, and cell phone records placed Harris at the scenes of the crimes. In his SUV, authorities found a 9MM pistol that had been burned to hide evidence.

Police also learned Harris’s girlfriend had a white Ford Taurus like the one witnesses saw fleeing after Urrea was shot. After searching the car, authorities found a fired cartridge in the vehicle, which they connected to the murder.

With overwhelming evidence against him, Harris chose to plead guilty in 2023 to avoid the death penalty. On November 14th, he admitted to one count of capital murder, three counts of murder, and two counts of aggravated assault.

The courtroom was heavy with grief as victims’ families shared the impact of his actions. Patricia Urrea, mother of Robert Jaden Urrea, directly confronted Harris, calling him “a weak excuse for a man, a coward.”

Harris was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.