Jury finds two Killeen men guilty in 2015 Walmart parking lot shooting

By LYNETTE SOWELL 
Cove Leader-Press 

A Coryell County jury found Ta’Darius Davis and Terence Lee Daniel Jr., guilty on Friday in connection with the death of 24-year-old Thomas Gene Smethers after a shooting in the parking lot of the Copperas Cove Walmart on Oct. 28, 2015. 
At that time, Smethers was found with gunshot wounds, lying in the parking lot. 
Davis, Daniel and Smethers were reportedly meeting up for a drug deal that went bad, and after a multi-jurisdictional investigation by the Copperas Cove Police Department, the Killeen Police Department, the Bell County Sheriff’s Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety along with the Texas Rangers, the two men were arrested. 
Both Davis, 22, and Daniel, 23, remained in the Coryell County jail while awaiting trial for the murder. 
Davis was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. 
Daniel was found guilty of murder and robbery, with his sentencing beginning yesterday morning in district court in Gatesvile. 
The trial lasted three weeks, with the jury deliberating until the early morning hours last Friday. 
According to Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd’s office, more than 50 witnesses testified and nearly 300 exhibits were entered into evidence.