A South Arlington man who went quiet on his family for two days was found shot to death inside his Kingfisher Lane home in October 2024, and the man who killed him has now been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder. Marshall McLemore, now 22, admitted to shooting 28-year-old Alexander Rivas with an AR-15-style pistol and then torching the victim's rented minivan to hide evidence of the crime.
McLemore pleaded guilty under an agreement with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office to the top offense in his indictment, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He was sentenced in the 485th District Court, which handles serious felony prosecutions at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center and is presided over by Judge Steven Jumes, according to Tarrant County court records. Had the case gone to trial and resulted in a murder conviction, McLemore faced a statutory range of five to 99 years or life in prison, the station's report notes.
A Wellness Check Turns Into a Homicide Scene
Rivas' relatives had not heard from him since early Saturday afternoon on October 19, 2024, and when he continued to go silent, they reached out to a friend to check on him, according to WFAA. That friend entered the house on the 300 block of Kingfisher Lane and told patrol officers he found a body inside, per the same account. When Arlington police officers arrived on October 21, 2024, they discovered Rivas' body in the living room with multiple gunshot wounds and found no signs of forced entry into the home, according to the City of Arlington.
That detail, combined with cellphone records showing McLemore had communicated with Rivas shortly before his death, pointed investigators toward a prearranged encounter rather than a break-in, per the city's investigation report. An Arlington police crime scene officer recovered McLemore's fingerprint inside Rivas' house, making him a person of interest, and detectives later obtained cellphone records placing him at the home during the murder timeframe, the Star-Telegram reported. Multiple people also came forward with information implicating McLemore after Rivas' body was found, per police.
A Burned Minivan and a Trophy Photo
Detectives say McLemore burned the Nissan Quest that Rivas had rented, destroying 99 percent of its structure, per the district attorney's office, and the vehicle was later found abandoned in Dallas in November 2024, according to a detective affidavit cited by the Star-Telegram. Investigators also found that McLemore had posted a photo of himself holding a gun that belonged to Rivas, the outlet reported. Detectives believe drug activity was involved in the killing, according to police.
McLemore evaded arrest for roughly three weeks before the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Fugitive Task Force located him in the Corpus Christi area on November 14, 2024. He was taken into custody on a murder warrant by the Corpus Christi Police Department Gang Unit working alongside the task force, which identified him as armed and dangerous at the time of his apprehension, according to the CCPD Blotter.
What the 15-Year Sentence Means for Parole
Because murder is classified as a violent “3G” offense under Texas Government Code § 508.145, McLemore will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 50 percent of his sentence, with no credit for good conduct time, according to the L&L Law Group. That means McLemore will become eligible for parole after serving 7½ years, per the Star-Telegram's reporting. His 15-year term falls near the lower end of the state's 5-to-99-year sentencing scale for first-degree murder under Texas Penal Code § 19.02, though Texas law bars probation for any sentence exceeding 10 years, according to the Texas Criminal Defense Group.
All felony murder prosecutions and plea agreements in Tarrant County district courts fall under the administration of District Attorney Phil Sorrells, who oversees negotiated dispositions like the one that resolved McLemore's case. Hoodline previously reported on a teen's 30-year sentence in a separate Arlington homicide tied to high-risk drug activity that was also resolved through a plea deal with Sorrells' office, and a Tarrant County jury convicted Paul Branton of murder and sentenced him to 15 years for an April 2022 Fort Worth shooting.
Homicides in Arlington: A Blip, Then a Return to Decline
Rivas' killing came during a year when Arlington recorded 17 homicides, up from 15 in 2023, even as overall citywide crime fell by 5 percent, according to KERA. By 2025, Arlington's homicide count had dropped back to 15, mirroring a broader North Texas trend that saw Dallas homicides fall from 184 in 2024 to 141 in 2025, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Arlington police also expanded their Real-Time Crime Center in 2024, integrating license plate recognition cameras and digital forensics tools that have supported homicide investigations across the department.
