24-year-old sentenced to life in prison for 2020 murders of former UH athlete and teenager

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A 23-year-old man was convicted for killing two people in separate shootings back in 2020, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

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Xavier Jerome McConico, 23, was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of 27-year-old Earl Anthony-Blair Foster and 16-year-old Undre Thomas.

After a nine-day trial and a 45-minute deliberation, a Harris County jury found McConico guilty of murder.

Thomas was shot to death during a shootout at an apartment complex in northeast Houston on Jan. 30, 2020.

Investigators said a gunfight transpired after several people began arguing outside the complex on Sterlingshire Street.

"Thomas was killed in the crossfire when McConico tried to shoot someone else," prosecutors said.

Attorneys said that Thomas' friends tried to take him to the hospital, but pulled over to call 911 for help because his injuries were so bad.

The teen was pronounced dead at a Heights-area hospital. McConico was then on the run.

Officials said Thomas knew McConico, but it is unclear how.

Two months later, Foster was shot and killed on March 31, 2020 after a fight outside of a gas station in southwest Houston, according to prosecutors.

McConico and a group of people were arguing, which turned into a fistfight, inside a gas station in the 2500 block of Almeda-Genoa.

The attorney's office said one man punched another man unconscious when McConico pulled out a handgun.

Foster, who was not involved in the fight, and another man to ran out of the store and into the parking. McConico fired three shots, hitting Foster in the back of the head near the gas pumps.

McConico ran away but was later arrested and admitted to his role in the shooting after detectives with the Houston Police Department identified him through surveillance video.

Foster was from Missouri City and had a degree in sociology from the University of Houston, where he played football on scholarship.

Police connected McConico to the 16-year-old's murder, four months after the shooting, while he was in the Harris County Jail for Foster's death.

"This defendant is a very violent gang member who shot an innocent man in the back of the head as he was running away," Assistant District Attorney Sarah Neyland, who prosecuted the case, said. "This defendant killed two people within two months and deserved to be sentenced to life in prison."