Clayton Turrentine

Clayton Richard Turrentine was a 55-year-old White male and the owner of Bill’s Auto Sales, a car dealership in southwest Fort Worth, Texas. On December 14, 2020, he was killed along with two of his employees, 65-year-old business secretary Virginia “Jenny” Lewis and 46-year-old car lot worker Veronica Del Jones. The women were described by their families as kind and generous. “She was good. And she would’ve given anybody anything,” said Virginia’s daughter. Veronica’s daughter said of her mother, “There’s not a bad bone in my body at all.”

The crime was discovered on the afternoon of Monday, December 14, 2020, when a family member went to check on relatives at the dealership on Benbrook Highway. After finding blood on the door and being unable to get inside, the person called the police to request a welfare check. Officers arrived and found Virginia Lewis inside, lying on the floor behind a desk with a gunshot wound.

The investigation led authorities to a second location, an abandoned building in Palo Pinto County. There, they discovered the bodies of Clayton Turrentine and Veronica Jones. Investigators learned that the motive was likely a dispute over a vehicle. Turrentine had recently purchased a red Dodge from a man named Lamont Cousins for $10,000. After Turrentine sold the car, the new buyer discovered it had a lien on it, and the vehicle was repossessed. Turrentine refunded the buyer, which made Cousins unhappy.

Detectives used surveillance video from nearby businesses that showed a vehicle arriving at the car lot, followed ten minutes later by two people leaving in an F-150 truck. A GPS tracker on the truck led police to a parking lot in Arlington, where they found and arrested Lamont Cousins and another man, Andrew Vandermeer. Cousins was charged with capital murder for the three deaths.

During the trial, prosecutors laid out the sequence of events. They said Cousins fatally shot Virginia Lewis at Bill’s Auto Sales. He and Vandermeer then tied up Turrentine and Jones. Vandermeer testified that he drove them to an abandoned bait shop in Palo Pinto County as Cousins gave directions. According to prosecutors, Cousins told the two captives, “This is the end of the road.” He then took Turrentine into the vacant building and shot him in the back of the head. Afterward, he retrieved Jones from the vehicle, walked her into the building, and shot her in the back of the head as well.

A Tarrant County jury convicted Lamont Cousins of capital murder for the triple homicide. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His co-defendant, Andrew Vandermeer, accepted a plea deal in exchange for his testimony, agreeing to a 45-year prison sentence.