Jury Convicts Waco Teen Who Shot Detective AK-47 While Fleeing Shooting Scene

WACO, TX (KWTX) – A Waco teenager who fired at least 13 shots at a Waco police detective while fleeing the scene of another shooting in 2020 was sentenced Wednesday by a McLennan County jury.

A jury in the 54th U.S. District Court about 10 minutes before convicting 19-year-old Devonte Terrell Adams of aggravated assault in which he fired an AK-47 rifle from the back seat of a car as he and others tried to escape from Waco. Police Detective John Clarke.

Adams, then 16, testified as an adult in the incident, which prosecutors Ryan Calvert and Luke McCowan told jurors could be for Clark, residents of the Estella Maxey apartment complex and those who lived near Ald. , be fatal. Dallas Road, where the shooting took place.

Adams, represented by attorney David Hudson, chose Judge Susan Kelly, not a jury, to impose his sentence. Assault in the second degree is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. However, the charges against Adams increased as he was convicted of robbery as a juvenile in 2018 and sent to a Texas juvenile justice facility. The enhancement reduces his potential sentence from 5 to 99 years or life in prison.

Kelly will sentence Adams after reviewing the exit report and hearing testimony at a May 17 sentencing hearing.

Adams’ accomplices in the shooting, Wilford Carpenter, who was driving the car, and Jaquan Davis, a passenger, both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively.

Clark testified in the three-day trial that he was driving in the 700 block of Dearborn Street when he heard two shots from a handgun and multiple rounds from a large-caliber rifle. Police later found two .380-caliber cartridges and 13 spent cartridges from an AK-47 at the residence of Estella Maxey, 1809 JJ Flewellen Road.

As Clark, who was driving an unmarked police car, and other officers descended on the apartment complex, Clark said he saw a black Jeep matching the description of the one the suspects were seen in.

Clark’s body camera captured much of the chase, which continued across Herring Avenue, JJ Flavell and Golson Road. Clark’s car was equipped with emergency lights in the grill, but he said he didn’t activate the lights at first because he was just trying to keep the fleeing Jeep in sight until other officers arrived.

The Jeep ran a stop sign on Old Dallas Road and a passenger in a yellow hoodie leaned out the driver’s side window with an AK-47 and fired 13 shots at him, Clark said. He said he thought he heard something hit his windshield, but later checked his car and found no signs of a bullet hitting the car.

Clark said he turned on his grill lights and tried to speed off. However, he said he lost sight of the suspects when they reached East Waco Drive.

Calvert and McCowan played video of Clark’s chase and another video from a security camera at an Old Dallas Drive home in which multiple gunshots can be heard.

No one, including Clark, was injured in the incident. However, Calvert told jurors in closing statements Wednesday morning that someone could have easily been hurt or killed in the crowded East Waco apartment complex or on the route Adams and his co-defendants lived as they fled from Clark.

“My friends, you can’t pull the trigger once, let alone 13 times or 26 times, and not know what you’re doing,” Calvert said. “Each pull of that trigger was a loud statement of his intent for the day. Whether it was in Estella Maxey’s apartment complex or it was in Old Dallas, every pull of that trigger was a loud statement of his intent heard for blocks.” That’s how John Clarke got there in the first place.”

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