Michael LaHood Jr. Murder: Where Is Kenneth Foster Jr. Now? – Interviewing death row inmates is featured in the Netflix Crime and Investigation series “I Am a Killer.” Season 2 premiered in the UK in 2019 and on Netflix in other countries starting on January 31, 2020.
According to Netflix, the show provides a first-person perspective: “history’s most legendary killers narrate their stories from their points of view in their own horrifying words.” Episode two of Season One of the streaming service tells the tale of one of the men found guilty in connection with the death of Michael LaHood Jr.
Nicolas “Nico” LaHood, who appears in the Netflix special “I Am A Killer: Killer In The Eyes Of The Law,” describes the night his brother was murdered. LaHood Jr. is Nicolas “Nico” LaHood’s brother. Let’s investigate the specifics of the crime to learn more, shall we?
Also Read: Gary and Jan Tyrrell Murders: Where Is Mark Porter Today?
How Did Michael LaHood Jr. Die?
On August 14, 1996, Mauriceo Brown shot and killed 25-year-old Michael LaHood Jr. In the episode, LaHood states of Brown, “I need to physically witness him breathe his last breath and go to the Lord.”
On the evening of August 14, 1997, Foster, Brown, DeWayne Dillard, and Julius Steen were smoking marijuana and drinking. According to testimony in the prosecution, they pulled off two armed robberies that evening using Dillard’s gun while Foster served as the driver and wound up behind a car carrying LaHood and his girlfriend, Mary Patrick.
Foster then stopped next to Patrick while still driving. Patrick said that when the males started following her car, she went out and checked who they were. The individuals in the car said she had flagged down their vehicle and denied that they had been following her.
Before Brown exited the vehicle with the gun in hand, Patrick engaged the men in conversation. Both Dillard and Steen testified that Brown was acting on his own initiative and that there had been no talk of him robbing or killing LaHood.
Brown shot and murdered LaHood after they got into a fight. Foster, who was 19 at the time, grew agitated and attempted to leave the area in his car, but Dillard and Steen forced him to wait until Brown got back into the vehicle. Foster’s lawyer, Keith Hampton, told ABC News that they sped off but were quickly apprehended.
Foster was tried concurrently with Brown rather than being given a separate trial. Foster was accused under the Texas “law of parties” provision, which abolishes the line between a criminal and an accomplice and permits Foster to be executed despite not having fired the gun.
Who Killed Michael LaHood Jr. and Why?
Interestingly, the woman who had previously been present throughout the murder provided a comprehensive eyewitness account of the event by the time the police arrived on the scene. She explained that the hit-and-run vehicle had four occupants, and that one of them had shot the victim in the cold before the driver assisted them in fleeing quickly.
The police narrowed it down to Kenneth Foster Jr. and his companions, Julius Steen, DeWayne Dillard, and Mauriceo Brown, using the eyewitness story and the descriptions given. Interestingly, Kenneth was identified as the car’s driver, but Mauriceo was determined to be the shooter by investigators.
When taken into custody by the authorities, Kenneth stated he was travelling with pals when they decided to commit a series of robberies and that he was not involved in the murder. Kenneth even pleaded that he accepted the job of a getaway driver out of peer pressure and that he was unaware of Mauriceo’s murderous intentions. However, the police continued to believe that he was involved, so they accused Kenneth of murder.
What Happened to Kenneth Foster Jr. and Where Is He Now?
Kenneth Eugene Foster Jr., a prisoner, formerly serving a death sentence in Texas after being found guilty under the Texas law of parties, was born on October 22, 1976. Despite not firing a shot, he was found guilty of killing Michael LaHood Jr. on August 15, 1996, at 2:46 a.m. at age 19. He was allegedly involved in a series of thefts while driving with three of his friends, Julius Steen, Mauriceo Brown, and DeWayne Dillard. When Mauriceo Brown allegedly shot and killed Michael LaHood Jr.
Foster was found guilty under the law of parties rather than for actually committing the crime, so both his conviction and execution were challenged.
Although the term “law of parties” is used in Texas law, this idea is just another definition of “felony murder,” a widely accepted legal criterion recognized by statute and common law. In 43 out of the 50 United States, felony murder is a crime. A person may be held criminally accountable for felony murder if the accused kills another person while committing a different offence. In the 43 jurisdictions where felony murder is legal in some form, there are at least four other techniques based on factors including the degree of carelessness, evidence of “malice,” or in 28 states, evidence of a linked death and the commission of the distinct offence alone.
Foster, death row inmate #999232 for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), was put on death row on July 1st, 1997. He was initially housed in the Ellis Unit but was moved to the Terrell Unit’s successor, the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, in 1999.
On July 19, 2006, Mauriceo Brown, the person who shot Michael LaHood Jr., was put to death. Six hours before the scheduled execution on August 30, 2007, Texas Governor Rick Perry commuted the death penalty from death to 40 years in prison. In 2036, Foster will be able to apply for parole. He is currently detained at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Stiles Facility, where he is housed in the administrative segregation unit.
