Alvin Charles McKnight Jr., charged with capital murder in the Nov. 4 apparent shooting deaths of two Gilmer women, was expected to be returned to Upshur County from California on Tuesday (Dec. 5) after waiving extradition, said Upshur sheriff’s Chief Deputy David Hazel.
McKnight, 41, of Gilmer, was captured by police Nov. 15 at a San Bernardino, Calif., bus station, where he arrived after authorities electronically tracked his location.
He is charged with killing sisters Mandy Ray, 35, and Dermetrica Dashaunda Waters, 37, both of Gilmer, at Ray’s home on U.S. 271 south of Gilmer, said Sheriff Larry Webb’s office. Hazel has said the slayings are considered an act of domestic violence.
McKnight lived with Waters until recently, and fathered a child by one of the sisters, authorities said.
Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd said at a Nov. 16 press conference that he would wait until McKnight returned to Upshur County before announcing whether he would seek the death penalty in the case.
Capital murder is punishable in Texas only by lethal injection or life imprisonment without parole.
McKnight’s truck was found by Gladewater police on Tenery Street shortly after the nighttime homicides, and he was arrested without resistance in California.
At the joint press conference with Webb, Byrd alluded to the Dec. 11 arrest of McKnight’s sister, Laquesha Monique McKnight, on a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution of her brother, and said authorities believe others helped him avoid arrest.
“I will prosecute each and every one of these people,” he pledged.
– By Phillip Williams