Deputies said Ocastor Shavon Ferguson kidnapped and murdered Kayla Kelley. (Image of Ferguson via Collin County Jail; image of Kelley via Collin County Sheriff’s Office)
There was a time when Texas woman Kayla Kelley, 33, wanted to marry her boyfriend Ocastor Shavon Ferguson, 33, but that attraction ended with her buried in a shallow grave. Jurors on Thursday took about an hour to convict Ferguson of murder, according to Fort Worth NBC affiliate KXAS. They later sentenced him to life in prison.
Prosecutors reportedly said that Kelly was exposing the already married defendant’s philandering to other women. Ferguson had dated her under his pseudonym “Kevin Brown.”
“This is his girlfriend,” Kelley wrote from his phone at 2:29 a.m. on Jan. 10, 2023. “He also has a wife. I know. I’m just as shocked as you.”
This might have been the last thing she ever wrote, authorities said.
Authorities have said they used cellphone data to follow Ferguson to a wooded area near his home. It was in this wooded area that they discovered Kelley’s body.
Ferguson also set fire to Kelley’s SUV and abandoned it, prosecutors said.
Defense lawyer Edwin “Bubba” King reportedly suggested that cellphone data was inaccurate and that there was no evidence tying his client to the murder.
Prosecutor Kailey Gillman, however, maintained that they found the body by following Ferguson.
“Without following his movements, she never would have been found,” Gillman said.
Authorities argued that Ferguson feigned worry by texting Kelley for her whereabouts. This continued even as he was at her grave.
“He’s digging her grave, texting and asking why she’s not responding,” Texas Ranger detective Thomas Fitzpatrick reportedly said.
More Law&Crime coverage: Man Charged with Murder After Girlfriend’s Remains Turned Up on Arizona Reservation with Gunshot Wound to the Head Two Years After She Vanished
Note: This story was updated to reflect that Ferguson was sentenced.
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