A convicted killer who walked away from an Alabama prison road gang nearly 30 years ago has been arrested and indicted in connection with a slaying in Texas, authorities said.
Gary Thomas Sharron, 52, was indicted for murder in Navarro County on Sept. 21 in the shooting death of Sammie Hawkins, according to court records. He could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted on the capital murder charge.
Hawkins, 59, was found dead Sept. 5 with a gunshot wound to his head at his home near Kerens, about 70 miles northeast of Waco.
Navarro County deputies arrested Sharron four days later and recovered a pistol possibly used in the shooting, the Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday. They said robbery was a possible motive.
Lived under assumed name
Sharron lived in Tool, near Kerens, for much of the past three decades under the assumed name Glenn Ray Boelter, authorities said. He ran a barbecue restaurant, the Chatahoochie Smokehouse.
The Sheriff’s Department said a fingerprint analysis traced Sharron’s identity to Alabama.
Sharron walked away from a prison road gang in 1977 while serving the fourth year of a 25-year murder sentence, said Brian Corbett, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Tommy Boswell, sheriff of Russell County, Ala., said Sharron fatally stabbed a soldier from Fort Benning, Ga., during a bar fight.
Sharron remained in the Navarro County Jail with bail set at $750,000, authorities said.