Sentence handed down in 2008 murder
Houston County Courier - February 2010
By Daphne Hereford
Managing Editor
News@houstoncountycourier.com
CROCKETT – A Houston County jury handed down a 99-year sentence in the Sep-tember 2008 first degree mur-der of 34-year-old Steven McCullough. The jury deliberated about nine hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 23-24 before reaching the verdict that would send 22-year-old Courtney Benton to the Texas Department of Criminal Jus-tice. The case was prosecuted by Houston Coun-ty District At-torney Donna Gordon Kas-par. Benton will be eligible for parole in 30 years. Mrs. Kaspar said Benton pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Feb. 16, the first day of the trial, which left the jury of seven women and five men to assess punishment. McCullough was shot to death with a .22 caliber fire-arm in the early morning hours of Sept. 17, 2008. According to reports at the time, Crockett Police Depart-ment received a 911 call about 2:10 a.m. reporting a man not moving in a vehicle that was parked on stokes Street near the intersection of Pease Street. When CPD officers arrived on the scene they reportedly found McCullough unrespon-sive in the driver’s seat of his vehicle. Justice of the Peace Precinct 1 Clyde black pronounced McCullough dead at the scene and ordered an autopsy to de-termine the exact cause. |
