TEXARKANA, Texas–A man charged with capital murder in the March shooting death of a clerk at a Family Dollar store in Maud, Texas, entered a not guilty plea Monday at a hearing in Texarkana.
Keshawn Deiron Wickware, 27, appeared Monday before 5th District Judge Bill Miller for arraignment in a courtroom at the Bi-State Justice Building, court records show. Wickware’s court-appointed attorney, Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, entered a not guilty plea on Wickware’s behalf to the charge stemming from the March 4 shooting death of 47-year-old Denyle Pierce.
Judge Miller scheduled the case for a pretrial hearing in July. If convicted, Wickware faces a possible death sentence or life in prison without parole. He is currently being held in the Bowie County jail.
Wickware was reportedly a regular customer who sometimes stopped in the store multiple times a day, according to a probable cause affidavit. When Wickware walked into the shop at 424 Broadway St. in Maud shortly before 8 p.m. on March 4, Pierce reportedly joked with Wickware, asking him “if he was cold” because of the mask he was wearing.
Wickware allegedly ignored the joke, approached the counter and asked for some Black and Mild cigars before pulling a black and silver handgun from his pocket and pointing it at Pierce. Another employee on site allegedly told officers that she believes Wickware pulled the trigger, fatally shooting Pierce in the head, because she was too slow in opening the register.
After fatally shooting Pierce, Wickware allegedly left empty-handed and fired several shots upward into the air outside the front door before making a getaway in a burnt orange SUV, turning onto Highway 8 in the direction of Cass County.
As Wickware was well known to the store’s management and employees, they were able to provide police with surveillance video from a few days before that showed Wickware allegedly wearing the same jacket with a distinctive insignia, the same jogger-style pants and the same tan-colored slide sandals as he had worn during the shooting. While the employees knew Wickware by sight, they were unable to provide investigators with his name.
A local citizen near the scene told officers that the description of the man and vehicle they were looking for sounded like a person she knew who lived less than a mile away in apartments in the 300 block of Ash Street. Officers traveled to the apartments and located a 2024 burnt orange Buick Encore parked outside.
Wickware was quickly apprehended from a unit at the apartments. He was allegedly wearing the same jogger-style pants and slide sandals as in the recording of the fatal shooting and a jacket with the same distinctive insignia was allegedly recovered from his apartment.
Investigators also reportedly recovered a black and silver Taurus 9 mm handgun from the residence.
Wickware also entered pleas of not guilty Monday to charges of attempted assault on a peace officer and terroristic threat against a peace officer in connection with an unrelated incident last June at CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital in Texarkana, Texas.
Wickware was allegedly punching walls, had thrown a chair and was being combative with hospital staff who had been told the morning of June 5 by Wickware’s family that he attempted to harm himself by setting the back seat of his car on fire, according to a probable cause affidavit.
When police arrived, they allegedly noticed cuts on Wickware’s fists consistent with punching a wall but he had since calmed down so they left. About 15 minutes later, the officers were again dispatched to the hospital and asked to help get him into restraints so he could be treated without assaulting the hospital staff, the affidavit said.
Wickware allegedly threatened to kill the officers before he was taken to jail. If convicted of attempting to assault a police officer, he could receive two to ten years in prison. If found guilty of terroristic threatening of a peace officer, Wickware faces six months to two years in a state jail.
