Dozens of potential jurors showed up to perform their civic duty for a Harker Heights murder trial on Monday. Instead, after a half-day of jury selection, a plea agreement was reached and 25-year-old Tre Jean Keandre Smith was sentenced by day’s end to decades behind bars.

Smith was indicted on May 10, 2023, a charge of murder, which is a first-degree felony punishable by 5-99 years, or life, in prison.

“Jury selection began this morning, but then the defendant entered a plea after lunch,” according to Bell County District Attorney Stephanie Newell in a statement on Monday. “The plea deal was a sentence between 20 to 45 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division. The State and Defense called witnesses this afternoon for the sentencing and Judge Wade Faulkner

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