A 24-year-old man has been sentenced to two life sentences in prison after a jury found him guilty of killing a 5-year-old and a 17-year-old in Fort Worth in 2022, officials said Monday.

On August 28, 2022, Anthony Bell-Johnson and others he knew, including then-16-year-old Jay Shawn Nixon-Clark, drove through a neighborhood in northwest Fort Worth and parked near a home on Steel Dust Drive. According to court documents, Bell-Johnson, Nixon-Clark and the others sat and watched the residence where teenagers and children were playing in the garage with the door open for three minutes and 19 seconds.

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Anthony Ray Bell-Johnson

Fort Worth Police Department

Officials said Bell-Johnson and Nixon-Clark then got out of the vehicle wearing masks and carrying high-powered automatic rifles, ran toward the house and opened fire. Bell-Johnson fired his weapon at least 16 times, court documents state.

After they finished shooting, Bell-Johnson and Nixon-Clark returned to their vehicle and fled the scene. Jamarrien Monroe, 17, and his cousin, Rayshard Javon Scott, 5, were killed. Other family members, including Monroe’s 18-month-old son, were injured.   

“He absolutely knew what he was doing,” said Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Bill Vassar, who prosecuted the case with Melinda Hogan.   

“They executed two of those children,” Hogan told the jury.  

Five days later, the keys to the getaway car were found in Bell-Johnson’s pocket.  

Bell-Johnson was also sentenced to pay $20,000 in fines. 

Nixon-Clark, now 20, was found guilty of capital murder in this case last year. He was sentenced to life in prison.   

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