Texarkana killings earn 20-year-old 2 life terms

TEXARKANA — A man who turned down a 40-year plea offer was sentenced Wednesday to consecutive life terms after being convicted of a double murder and other crimes in a 2019 shooting in Texarkana.

Justin Dalton Wilson, 20, declined the offer last week. The Aug. 28, 2019, shooting left Scott Wiegmann, 45, and Reginald Davis Sr., 55, dead, and another man permanently disabled. The gunfire occurred while a young child watched a movie in a nearby bedroom.

Circuit Judge Brent Haltom sentenced Wilson to life terms plus 15 years on each count for use of a firearm, with those terms to run consecutively. The murder sentences will run consecutive to a 30-year term for attempted murder of Lajhonta Collier plus 10 years for commission of a felony in the presence of a child.

Wilson received a six-year term for aggravated assault involving the 7-year-old child, with an additional 15 years for use of a firearm.

Wilson was sentenced to 30 years for aggravated robbery, with an additional 15 years for use of a firearm.

Collier testified Tuesday that he, Wiegmann and Davis were socializing in his apartment, when Wilson arrived and shortly after began shooting.

Collier said he was shot first and watched as his two friends were killed. A trail of cash was discovered in and outside the apartment.

Two witnesses described a light-skinned Black man with curly hair, wearing a white shirt and black pants running from the apartment. Wilson testified Wednesday that he was in the apartment, but it was two men dressed in black who committed the crimes.

Wilson’s account did not match the physical evidence. Under cross-examination, he could not explain why he was the only person seen running from the apartment. He said he had earned the cash that was found in a toaster oven at his mother’s home in Lewisville and that a vacuum-sealed bag of marijuana identical to ones Collier had packaged in his apartment came from somewhere else.

A Miller County jail inmate testified that Wilson had told him his “biggest regret was not making sure” Collier was dead before fleeing the apartment.

After the jury returned its guilty verdicts, it heard victim impact testimony from Wiegmann’s aunt, who traveled from a distant state to attend the trial.

The aunt testified that Wiegmann was caring daily for his aging parents at the time of his death. Wiegmann’s father is bedridden and his mother died about a year after the murder of her son. Without Wiegmann available to care for them, his parents had to sell their Texarkana home and move closer to relatives in another state.

Wiegmann’s aunt read a statement written by Wiegmann’s mother before her death last year.