NEW BOSTON, Texas–A Bowie County jury on Thursday convicted a member of the Texarkana street gang Loyalty Cash Business of helping to coordinate the fatal December 2020 shooting of a fellow gang member in a murder-for-hire scheme and on Friday they sentenced him to life in prison.
Calvin Gardner, 34, was involved in the planning and execution of the murder of Jermaine “Bubba” Aldridge in the parking lot of Chili’s restaurant in Texarkana, Texas, on Dec. 3, 2020, according to court filings. Gang members wanted Aldridge dead because one of their leaders, Courtney Hope, believed Aldridge had stolen $100,000 in crime proceeds from him.
Aldrige, 31, had been dining with a group of fellow LCB members at the family restaurant when he went outside to the parking lot to take a phone call. Gardner was not at Chili’s but was in contact with those who were as well as men hired to carry out the hit on Aldridge, court filings show.
Gardner made and received a series of phone calls with the men who were with Aldridge eating at Chili’s in the hour before the murders and shortly after the shooting.
“Before and after the shooting, there were multiple calls from Calvin Gardner to and from members of LCB that were on the scene at Chili’s along with two that were not on scene,” according to a probable cause affidavit. “With the call logs, it appears that all members [of LCB] on scene at Chili’s restaurant knew that the hit was about to occur due to their actions and phone calls collaborating before and after the hit. This is even more confirmed with the connection of Gardner to the hitmen.”
One of the calls Aldridge received was from Cedric Alexander.
Alexander, 33, was recently sentenced by a Bowie County jury to three life sentences, including for being one of two men who drove from Tennessee to Texarkana to carry out Aldridge’s murder. Van Dmarcreus Grissom, aka “Red,” 35, was hammered with the maximum sentence by a jury for his gang-related activity as well.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told TXK Today on Friday that, “Three separate Bowie County juries have weighed this evidence and rendered the maximum sentences allowed under Texas law.”
“Our citizens have demonstrated through these verdicts that they have no tolerance for gang violence in this community,” Crisp said. “The Bowie County District Attorney’s Office commends the dedicated men and women who serve this county in law enforcement, and who have relentlessly pursued this criminal street gang in an extraordinary effort to dismantle Loyalty Cash Business.”
Gardner was represented by Texarkana lawyer Derric McFarland. Crisp represented the state. District Judge John Tidwell presided over the trial.
