GALVESTON, Texas – A Galveston County jury has convicted a man of capital murder for a fatal fire he set that caused the death of 55-year-old Renita Hawthorne in 2024.
Courtney Allen Thompson, Jr. was found guilty on Monday and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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The fire happened in February 2024 at a home at 715 39th Street in Galveston. Firefighters and police arrived and found four people, including two children, trapped inside the house. Firefighters were able to rescue three of the people by breaking a bedroom window, but Hawthorne perished in the fire.
The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office said it was later determined Hawthorne died from carbon monoxide poisoning and thermal injuries from the fire. Courtney Allen Thompson, Jr. was later charged with capital murder for intentionally setting that fire.
During Thompson’s trial, which began Monday, April 27, jurors saw text messages from an anonymous phone number sent to Hawthorne’s son and girlfriend threatening him and his family because he was unable to pay a drug debt. Hawthorne’s son testified that Xavier Faison, AKA Saccathon, was the drug dealer that had been threatening him and his mother.
Galveston County District Attorney Felony Division Chief prosecutor Adam Poole presented surveillance video from multiple residences on the night of the murder showing a black vehicle repeatedly circling the victim’s house while two men, one dressed in a blue hoodie and carrying a red gasoline can, walked towards the house. The men were then seen running away as flames began to rise in the background.
A final ominous message was shown from Faison’s Instagram account the following morning, boasting that they had burned down the victim’s house, that they were prepared to burn down all of Galveston, and that he hoped she was dead.
Galveston Fire Marshall Chris Harrison testified that the pattern of the fire indicated that it was intentionally set with ignition points at each of the doors to the residence. Harrison also testified that laboratory results showed the presence of gasoline near those ignition points.
The jury was shown a video taken the day of the murder of a man wearing a blue hoodie purchasing gasoline with a red gasoline can from a gas station just blocks from the victim’s home. The video showed that man getting into a blue vehicle driven by an associate of Faison.
The distinctive clothing visible in the video matched clothing worn by Thompson in various posts on his Instagram page, including posts made the day before the murder. Jurors also saw evidence of communications between Thompson and Faison showing their close relationship.
A jailhouse informant also testified that Thompson confessed to him that he was hired by Faison to commit the murder in retaliation for the unpaid drug debt. The informant testified that he decided to report the information to police because he did not like how Thompson was bragging about killing an innocent woman.
During closing arguments, Poole argued that setting the fire at each of the doors showed that Thompson’s intent was to trap and kill everyone inside, and likened his actions to building a tomb and then setting it on fire. Poole referenced one of Thompson’s Instagram posts in arguing that Thompson saw Renita Hawthorne as a stack of cash that he could balance in his head and flaunt on social media.
The jury began deliberating in the early afternoon Friday, May 1st. Following a recess over the weekend, the jury returned on Monday May 4th and found Thompson guilty of capital murder. The conviction resulted in an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.