Spring man sentenced to 40 years in prison after shooting wife, grazing stepson in 2020

SPRING, Texas (KTRK) -- A Spring man, who pleaded guilty to murdering his wife and grazing his 10-year-old stepson with a bullet, will spend 40 years behind bars.

RELATED: Wife fatally shot, 10-year-old grazed with bullet at Spring home, HCSO says

Jeffery John Fontenot III entered guilty pleas for murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and elected to be sentenced by a judge.

Five witnesses took the stand during the sentencing phase for the prosecution on Friday, and several took the stand for the defense.

Ultimately, Judge Natalia Cornelio gave Fontenot 40 years for the murder charge and 20 for the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge.

Fontenot will serve those sentences concurrently.

The day after Christmas in 2020, the Harris County Sheriff's Office responded to a call in the 19500 block of Lockridge Drive in Spring, where they found a woman dead inside her kitchen.

The woman was identified as Yashica Fontenot.

Her husband, Fontenot, with whom she had a relationship for three years, was arrested and charged in the case.

During the hearing, Yashica son, who is now 12 years old, testified that his mom and Jeffery got into an argument that evening.

He said his mother was making jewelry for a business she started when the argument started. She went to the kitchen to do dishes, and the boy said Jeffery Fontenot got a gun from under his mattress and shot at his mother.

SEE ALSO: Estranged husband shot wife, 4-year-old daughter, mother-in-law before killing himself, sheriff says

The child said he kicked and hit the man with the gun to protect his mother but could not. He ran to his room and said Jeffery shot at him and grazed his arm with a bullet.

He barricaded himself inside his bedroom with his dresser until the police arrived.

The victim's daughter, Dejia Edison, and her son testified that Jeffery had a drinking problem. They also both testified that their mother was trying to leave the relationship. She had gone as far as renting an apartment out of town in preparation for leaving.

The defense used witnesses to show that the two had a volatile relationship and previous history with the police.

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