Dallas County juries in 2018 found a white ex-cop guilty of murder for shooting a black teenager, sent a hired hit man to death row and convicted an Uber driver for raping a paying passenger.
Here's a look at some of the biggest trials this year at Dallas' criminal courthouse:
Roy Oliver, a former Balch Springs police officer, was convicted of murder for the on-duty shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards in April 2017. Jordan was leaving a party with his brothers and two friends when Oliver opened fire on the car carrying the teens.
The deadly shooting gained national attention and fueled a debate about violence by white police officers against unarmed black men.
Oliver was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He was the first ex-cop convicted of murder in Dallas County for an on-duty shooting in more than 40 years. Darrel L. Cain was sentenced to just five years for killing 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez while playing Russian roulette with the handcuffed boy in 1973.
Kristopher Love became the first person sent to death row from Dallas County in five years.
Love was convicted of capital murder in the murder-for-hire of Kendra Hatcher, a pediatric dentist gunned down in an Uptown parking garage. Love was the hired gun and was paid in "drugs and money."
Authorities say the mastermind behind the murder once dated Hatcher's boyfriend. That woman, Brenda Delgado, also faces a capital murder charge. Prosecutors can't seek the death penalty against her because of an extradition agreement with Mexico, where she fled.
Crystal Cortes, the getaway driver, testified against Love during his trial. She pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Antonio Cochran was found to be intellectually disabled and ineligible to receive capital punishment after prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty against him.
Cochran was convicted of killing 18-year-old Zoe Hastings in October 2015. Ultimately, a Dallas County jury didn't convict on the original capital murder charge and instead convicted Cochran of the lesser murder charge. He received a life sentence.
Had he been convicted of capital murder, he would have received an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors argued Cochran had kidnapped Hastings from a Redbox outside an east Dallas Walgreens. The teen was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.
Aracely Meza was sentenced to 99 years in prison in the starvation death of a 2-year-old boy in Balch Springs.
Videos captured Meza, a pastor, trying to resurrect Benjamin Aparicio. Meza cradled the boy's lifeless body and prayed over him. Weeks earlier, Meza ordered food be withheld from the boy because she believed he was possessed by the "demon of manipulation."
The boy was nothing but skin and bones by the time he died. Members of Meza's church testified during her trial that the pastor was controlling and forced them to abstain from food on certain days of the week.
Charles Phifer will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the beating death of his girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter.
Phifer, of Grand Prairie, was convicted of capital murder for the March 2016 beating of Leiliana Wright.
Leiliana's death exposed a staffing crisis in Child Protective Services, which had reports of possible abuse in Leiliana's home months before the girl was killed.
The girl's mother, Jeri Quezada, was sentenced to 50 years in prison as part of a plea agreement. Quezada testified against Phifer, saying the man strung up the little girl in a closet, slammed her against the wall and tried to force Pedialyte down her throat.
Michael "Texas Mike" Rogers was a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas when he used a power drill to torture 34-year-old Alberto Gonzalez.
Rogers was convicted of capital murder in Gonzalez's death and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
After Gonzalez died, Rogers burned the man's body in a failed attempt to cover the crime. Witnesses who testified during the trial said Rogers was the gang's second-in-command in the North Texas region.
They said that there were members of other gangs there that night, including other white supremacist groups and a member of the primarily Hispanic gang Tango Blast. Gonzalez had gone to the home to buy drugs.
Talal Ali Chammout, a driver for Uber, was convicted of sexually assaulting a customer three years ago.
Chammout was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the July 2015 assault of a woman he had driven home. The woman testified that she had spent the day drinking and didn't remember much of the assault, which happened in her home. She said she came to with scrapes on her knees and a bump on her head. She remembered Chammout trying to follow her into the home and telling him to leave.
After he was sentenced, Chammout told the judge, "I don't see how a passionate kiss turned into assault."
Rayan Ganesh was convicted of two counts of felony indecency with a child for masturbating in front of teenage girls in his law office.
Ganesh, a former attorney, was sentenced to eight years in prison but was released after spending six months behind bars. He will serve the rest of his sentence on probation.
Ganesh was disbarred for professional misconduct. While working as an attorney, he would approach people in the courthouse trying to get hired as their lawyer. That was also how he met teenage girls he would hire to work in his law office.
One of his victims testified that Ganesh masturbated in front of her twice and said she saw him watch pornography at work.
