A Fort Bend County man has been handed a 30-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in a December 2021 attack in which he shot and pistol-whipped his wife. According to court records and an appellate opinion, the woman survived but suffered extensive injuries and permanent damage.
A memorandum opinion from the First Court of Appeals, available via CaseMine, lays out the case in stark detail. The opinion states that Kenric Henry fired seven shots at his wife, then put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. When the weapon jammed and failed to fire, he struck her with it. Henry later pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated assault of a family member, the record shows.
The trial court set Henry’s punishment at 30 years in prison, and the First Court of Appeals upheld that sentence. On April 2, 2026, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Henry limited relief, finding that his appellate lawyer’s performance was deficient and allowing him to file an out-of-time petition for discretionary review, according to Justia. The high court’s order does not overturn the conviction or reduce the sentence. Instead, it simply restores Henry’s ability to ask for further review.
The attack, as the court described it
The appellate record describes a domestic argument over a pending divorce that exploded into violence in December 2021. According to CaseMine, Henry shot his wife twice in the stomach and five times in the legs, shattering her right femur, then pistol-whipped her when the trigger pull on a final shot failed. A 16-year-old stepson ran for help, and neighbors along with first responders got the woman and her son out of the home and to safety, the court noted.
What the court order actually changes
The Court of Criminal Appeals issued a per curiam opinion granting Henry the right to file an out-of-time petition for discretionary review within a narrow time frame and directed the clerk to notify the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The court concluded that Henry’s appellate counsel performed deficiently and that Henry would have filed a timely petition but for that failure. If Henry files and the Court of Criminal Appeals agrees to hear the case, it could then decide whether any legal errors raised on appeal justify relief. Until and unless that happens, the 30-year sentence remains intact.
Legal context
Under Texas law, an assault becomes aggravated when a deadly weapon is used or when the victim suffers serious bodily injury. In those circumstances it can be charged as a first-degree felony, which carries the possibility of lengthy prison terms. The statutory elements cited in the appellate record track Texas Penal Code §22.02. At Henry’s punishment hearing, testimony about years of abuse and the severity of the woman’s injuries factored into the court’s decision.
Local coverage
The sentencing and the more recent appellate developments have resurfaced in local media, putting the 2021 attack back in the spotlight. A brief television segment on the case is available from CW39 Houston.
