A McLennan County jury needed just 15 minutes to convict a 20-year-old Bruceville-Eddy man of murder, rejecting his claim of self-defense in the fatal shooting of a man whose car had broken down outside his home. Brandon Michael Davis was sentenced to life in prison and must serve at least 30 years before he becomes eligible for parole in the January 2025 killing of 38-year-old Dustin Nobles.
The quick verdict came after a three-day trial, according to KWTX, which reported jurors then deliberated just over two hours before handing down the life sentence. Prosecutors presented evidence that Nobles was unarmed and that Davis had initiated the confrontation, undercutting the defense's self-defense argument.
Testimony showed the two men had history before the shooting. The station reports Davis had sent Nobles a text the previous December warning he would shoot him if he returned to Davis's property on the 1300 block of Old Moody Road or the road in front of his home.
A Tire Repair Turns Deadly
On January 5, 2025, Nobles's vehicle broke down on Davis's property while he was working on a tire, according to the same account. Davis testified he gave Nobles just 10 minutes to fix his car and leave before the situation escalated into gunfire.
Davis shot Nobles once in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle, the outlet's report on his guilty verdict states. Witnesses testified that after pulling the trigger, Davis told the dying man, “make sure you die slow.”
Waco police officers responded to Davis's home that day on reports of a shooting, per KWTX's earlier reporting on the arrest affidavit. First responders found Nobles with a gunshot wound to his upper chest, and paramedics pronounced him dead at 1:04 p.m.
Jury Rejects Self-Defense Claim
At trial, jurors weighed Davis's account against the evidence prosecutors laid out and ultimately rejected his self-defense claims entirely, finding him guilty of murder in under a quarter hour of deliberation, the station's report notes. The case was also detailed by Law&Crime, which described Nobles as an acquaintance of Davis rather than a stranger.
With the life sentence now handed down, Davis will not be eligible to seek parole for at least three decades. The case closes out nearly two years after Nobles died in the driveway where he had simply been trying to get his car running again.
