A man who fatally shot another at a Texarkana, Texas, car wash last year was sentenced to 35 years in prison for murder Wednesday as part of a plea bargain in Bowie County.
Jimmy Jerome Dancer, 30, appeared before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell with Texarkana lawyers Joe Tyler and Shorty Barrett on Monday and entered a plea of guilty to murder in the March 24, 2017, death of Tilford Barfield. Tidwell put off formally sentencing Dancer until Wednesday so members of the victim’s family could attend.
Members of Barfield’s family looked on as Tidwell formally sentenced Dancer to the 35-year term included in his plea arrangement on Wednesday morning.
Barfield, 25, was shot in both legs and in the abdomen while present at the Bay Wash car wash at 4203 N. State Line Avenue in Texarkana, Texas, as he stood among a crowd of onlookers watching a fight. No evidence exists that Dancer intended to shoot Barfield specifically when he began firing a handgun on the car wash property.
Dancer has been in custody since turning himself in the day after the shooting last year.
