A Galveston County jury sentenced 37-year-old Anthony Lakeith Davis to 30 years in prison for the murder of Patrina Compton, a UTMB neonatal nurse who was shot and killed on Interstate 45 just after midnight on April 10, 2022. Davis was convicted following a three-day trial that began November 10, 2026, after his earlier trial ended in a mistrial in June.
According to The Daily News, Compton, 42, had worked as a nurse in the neonatal unit at the University of Texas Medical Branch since 2001. She was driving home to Galveston Island after dropping off food in La Marque for her mother's birthday party, according to the Houston Chronicle, when she was shot multiple times, including at least once in the head. Officers found her alive in the driver's seat with a gunshot wound to the head and multiple bullet holes along the driver's side of her vehicle, the same source reports, and her SUV was left riddled with bullet holes on I-45 in La Marque. She died later that day.
Conflicting Accounts of a Motive
Investigators have never publicly described a motive for the attack. The Chronicle reports that officials initially described the shooting as targeted, while the La Marque Police Department has said Compton was not the intended target of the shooting. An earlier KHOU report indicated police believed she may have been targeted, and the available reporting does not resolve that discrepancy.
Surveillance footage reviewed by detectives in the days after the shooting showed a car that appeared to follow Compton as she drove home, per the Chronicle's account. That vehicle was later identified as a blue Honda sedan belonging to Davis's girlfriend.
Traffic Stop Became the Case's Turning Point
About a month after the shooting, Davis was a passenger in that same blue Honda when police pulled it over in Texas City, the station's report notes. Officers found multiple guns during the search, and Davis admitted to possessing the weapons, leading to his arrest.
Testing later found that some of the shell casings recovered from the shooting scene matched one of the firearms taken during that traffic stop, the Chronicle reports. Investigators also used cellphone records to place Davis and another person, Crystal Adams, near both the shooting and Compton's last known location that night, and an FBI special agent testified that Davis's cellphone data placed him near the shooting location.
Davis Was the Only Person Charged
Davis has been the only person ever charged in connection with Compton's death. The Galveston County District Attorney's Office said, per a press release, that Davis either shot and killed Compton himself or that she was shot and killed by an accomplice.
During the trial's punishment phase, prosecutors presented evidence that Davis had previously been convicted of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury convicted Davis of murder after about three hours of deliberation, according to the district attorney's office, in a case where Davis could have faced up to life in prison. Under Texas law, he will be eligible for parole after serving half of his 30-year sentence.
