Cedric Deshun Alexander, pictured on the left, was given a prison sentence for gang violence that resulted in the death of Jermaine Aldridge, shown on the right. (Photograph of the crime scene and mug shot from the Texarkana Texas Police Department; Photo of the victim from his obituary)
A 'hit man' has been sentenced to life in prison for a series of gang violence in Texas which led to the death of a man who was shot in the back in a restaurant parking lot as part of amurder-for-hire plan.'
Cedric Deshun Alexander, 33, received his sentence on Thursday, according to online court records. Along with life imprisonment, he was also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines. He was found guilty of multiple charges of organizing criminal activity.
The case was so frightening that a police detective testified that a 'hit' was ordered against her, requiring a security detail for several months, Bowie County First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told Texarkana Today on Thursday.
“This local group of violent criminals hired Cedric Alexander from Memphis to terrorize our community and carry out a spree of homicidal violence,'' Crisp told the outlet. “Instead of showing regret or pleading for leniency, Alexander bragged about his unlawful disregard for humanity on social media, calling himself a ‘hit man.’ Fortunately, state and local law enforcement arrested him and gathered the necessary evidence that allowed a jury of our citizens to quickly convict Alexander and impose the maximum penalty permitted by law for each charge.”
Alexander was one of seven members of two gangs arrested in June 2022 during an 18-month police investigation in the Texarkana area following the “murder-for-hire plot” of Jermaine Aldridge in a Chili’s parking lot on Dec. 30, 2020.
Police found Aldridge lying between two cars at around 4:30 p.m. He had been shot once in the back and died there, police said when they announced Alexander’s arrest. The gang leader believed Aldridge had stolen $100,000 of his drug money, Texarkana Today reported. The gang leader was given a 40-year prison sentence in the case, the news outlet reported.
Alexander and another man, both from Mississippi, were hired to shoot Aldridge, then returned to Mississippi before Alexander went back to Texarkana in July 2021 to assist gang members in “creating complete chaos,” Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter said during closing arguments, the Texarkana Gazette reported.
Authorities stated that the murder was part of other gang violence, which included the killing of a 35-year-old man as he sat in a vehicle on July 15, 2021, shortly after another man had been bound in his home and robbed at gunpoint by several men, according to a news release.
“I’m extremely proud of the exceptional work of our detectives,” Texarkana Texas Police Chief Kevin Shutte said in the news release. “These were not easy cases by any standard. They had to use almost every tool in their investigative arsenal to finally uncover the truth of what happened.”