A Longview man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for the 2023 murder of a man near Whitney after accepting a plea deal.
Charlie Neal Harris Jr., who was 31 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to 45 years each on charges of murder and aggravated robbery and 10 years each on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and tampering/fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair. He will serve the sentences concurrently.
The victim, Cory Shelton, was found lying dead in the roadway after he was shot in the 100 block of Bluegrass Street October 6, 2023.
A black pickup truck was seen speeding away from the area with two males and a female inside.
Hill County sheriff’s deputies later found one man at a convenience store at the corner of farm roads 933 and 2604, and the female was found sitting on a bench in the Whitney city limits.
The four were reportedly traveling together in the pickup when a dispute occurred, culminating in the shooting of Shelton.
Harris was located with the truck in the 200 block of Ash Ridge, where he was armed inside of a nearby recreational vehicle.
The Hill County Crisis Negotiations Team eventually negotiated his surrender that evening, and he was booked into the Hill County Law Enforcement Center with bond set at $1.5 million. He had been held in jail since the murder.
The Lakelander 