Attorney General Ken Paxton
GREGG COUNTY – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a life sentence without parole for Brandon Harris for the 2020 murder of 24-year-old Valerie Hackett during a revenge shooting in Longview, Texas.
Harris committed the murder during a retaliation attack against several residents and employees of an apartment complex where he had been arrested previously for assault and the unlawful discharge of a firearm in 2019. Upon entering the management offices, Harris shot and killed Hackett and attempted to shoot the apartment manager who fled. Harris then proceeded through the grounds, shooting at onlookers and trying to locate and kill those he viewed as responsible for his previous arrest. No one else was injured and Harris fled the scene.
Law enforcement officers from the Longview Police Department quickly spotted Harris and arrested him. Following his arrest, Harris admitted that he had “shot a woman multiple times at point blank range” and expressed that his only regret was not killing the other people against whom he sought revenge. During the trial, Harris refused to participate, and the jurors found him guilty of capital murder after deliberating for three hours. He has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Office of the Attorney General’s Criminal Prosecutions Division, represented by Assistant Attorneys General Anna Lee McNelis and Wes Mau, represented the State in this capital murder prosecution due to a conflict of interest in the Gregg County District Attorney’s Office.
