A Tarrant County jury has sentenced 23-year-old Sundall Barnes to life in prison for the murder of 20-year-old Zoin Hodges, who was shot and killed outside the Shady Grove car wash in Arlington in the early morning hours of August 30, 2024. Investigators say a discarded cigar found near Hodges' body ultimately helped tie Barnes to the killing, closing a case that started with community tips about a suspect known only by a street alias.
According to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, DNA evidence linked Barnes to a brown cigar located near Hodges' body at the scene, providing prosecutors with physical evidence tying him directly to the shooting outside the car wash. Assistant District Attorneys Stephanie Simpson and Katherine Messina prosecuted the case, with investigator Lee Blagsdell and victim coordinator Laura Medina also part of the team, per the same Facebook post from the district attorney's office.
Officers responding to reports around 1:20 a.m. that night found Hodges deceased in the 2500 block of Brown Boulevard, according to a WFAA-TV report on an Arlington Police Department release. Several shell casings were also recovered near his body, evidence that would later prove critical to identifying his killer.
Tips Led Police to a Street Alias
During the initial investigation, Arlington homicide detectives received multiple community tips pointing to a suspect known by the alias “Maxxo,” whom police later identified as Barnes, according to the City of Arlington. That identification came together with a separate thread of evidence: surveillance footage from an August 13, 2024 vehicle burglary had captured Barnes stealing a firearm, which led APD North District Geographic detectives to obtain active arrest warrants for theft of a firearm and burglary of a motor vehicle weeks before the murder arrest.
Those warrants caught up with Barnes on September 7, 2024, when officers from APD's Community Action Team stopped a vehicle on Brown Boulevard for a traffic violation. Barnes was a passenger in the car, and officers found he had active warrants and located the reported stolen handgun inside the vehicle, the city's release states. Barnes was arrested during that traffic stop roughly one week after Hodges was killed, per the Tarrant County District Attorney's Facebook post.
Ballistics Technology Sealed the Case
Detectives test-fired the recovered handgun and submitted the casings to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, which confirmed a direct match to the shell casings left near Hodges' body, the city's release notes. Arlington police worked the case alongside Det. Tracey Dixon, and the department has said it remains committed to keeping the community safe.
That ballistics match was made possible by specialized technology the Arlington Police Department maintains through its NIBIN Engagement Team, which uses BRASSTRAX equipment held by only 27 law enforcement agencies nationwide, according to a report by FOX 4 News. Following his September 2024 arrest, Barnes was booked into the Tarrant County Jail on additional charges including theft of a firearm, burglary of vehicles, possession of marijuana over two ounces, and obstruction or retaliation, with total bond initially set at $800,000, The Dallas Morning News reported at the time.
Family Remembers Hodges as More Than a Victim
A Tarrant County jury found Barnes guilty of murder, and the court sentenced him to life in prison. Speaking after the verdict, Hodges' mother said her son “was not just a victim,” but was kind, a good person, and had a family that loved him, according to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.
Under Texas Penal Code Section 19.02, murder is classified as a first-degree felony carrying a statutory penalty range of 5 to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to legal analysis from Saputo Toufexis. Barnes' life sentence lands at the harshest end of that range, and it fits within a broader pattern the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office highlighted in August: juries in the county have delivered nearly 100 life sentences since District Attorney Phil Sorrells took office in January 2023.
The case also sits within citywide crime trends tracked by Arlington police. Department data reported by KERA News showed that overall crime in Arlington decreased from 2023 to 2024, even as homicides rose slightly by two cases over that same period. What specifically brought Barnes and Hodges together outside the car wash that night remains unclear from the available record.
