A Tarrant County jury sentenced a man to death Wednesday after he was convicted of the 2020 killing of a store owner during a robbery of the store.
Christopher Karon Turner, 48, was arrested in April 2020, several days after authorities said he entered the Super Big Country Mart in unincorporated Tarrant County and robbed the store, killing owner Anwar Ali, 62, in the process, a press release from the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office said.
In the morning of March 27, 2020, Turner, a convicted felon, walked into the store wearing a mask and pulled a gun on Ali. Turner demanded cash and Ali complied, opening the store’s register, the release said.
Turner then forced Ali into the bathroom, where he was fatally shot. He was found an hour later.
Turner fled the store in Ali’s minivan, where he found another $50,000 in a black bag. Authorities said Turner then went on a spending spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes and more before fleeing to Colorado.
He was later arrested by the U.S. marshals and was found in possession of the murder weapon.
During the trial, prosecutors said Turner attempted to hold up a sign to the jury as prosecutors asked the jury to deliver justice to Ali’s family. Turner also reportedly obtained the names and phone numbers of jurors and gave them to another inmate charged with murder, authorities said.
Gary Smart, Turner’s attorney, said via email the case was tough and that his client’s behavior in the courtroom complicated the case.
“I felt like we presented the best case we could with the emotional immaturity of the client,” Smart said.
Smart said the verdict will be appealed.
Ali was a Pakistani immigrant who came to the U.S. to pursue the American dream, prosecutors said, before his life was taken “for greed, for absolute lack of respect for human life.”
Another man, Joseph Gabriel Allen, 33, is also charged with murder in Ali’s death.