AUSTIN, Texas — A Travis County jury convicted a man of murder for the 2024 shooting death of another man outside the Texas Health and Human Services building in northeast Austin.
Investigators say Lavonta Harrison fatally shot Shelby Wayne Cody on Nov. 7, 2024 near the 6400 block of East US 290 service road.
Cody was attending a Batterer Intervention and Prevention Program course, investigators say, when Harrison arrived in his vehicle, got out and shot him. Detectives confirmed that both men were assigned to the same class.
Witnesses performed life-saving measures on Cody when officers arrived two minutes after the first 911 call. Cody, who had been shot in the leg and the stomach, was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead that evening.
Harrison was arrested on Nov. 12, 2024, on a parole violation warrant by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder in Cody’s death.
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“Based on talking with witnesses and the crime scene analysis, we don’t believe that Mr. Harrison was targeting anyone other than Shelby,” APD Detective Patrick Reed said at the time of Harrison’s arrest.
A Travis County grandy jury indicted Harrison for Murder on Dec. 31, 2024.
Harrison was convicted of murder on Thursday, Feb. 5. The jury sentenced him to 40 years in prison on Friday.