A Tarrant County jury found a man guilty of murder in a 2022 shooting at a west Fort Worth bar.
At the conclusion of his trial last week, Francis Sparks, 25, was sentenced on Friday to 25 years in prison.
Sparks, who was a documented gang member, fired 14 rounds during a fight at the Westside Saloon, at 3137 Alta Mere Drive, on Aug. 4, 2022, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
One round struck the victim, 28-year-old Tommy Freney III, in the head.
Freney was found dead in a parking lot outside the bar, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. Fort Worth police investigated the killing.
In a GoFundMe campaign in 2022, Carla Ray Cooks, Freney’s mother, wrote that her son was born in Wichita Falls and raised in south Fort Worth.
“He was 6-foot-4, amazing, loving, caring, kind, giving father to 2 boys and 2 girls with another girl on the way,” Cooks wrote. “Tommy was a brother to 6 sisters from both mom and dad’s side of the family. Tommy was a high spirit who loved to travel, from California to Atlanta, Houston etc…he was a giver, an amazing supporter. He knew how to lighten a dark room, he was your best friend, a protector.”
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