A Houston man was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2016 murder of his girlfriend, Amalia Alexander, who had filed domestic abuse charges against him. Jarvis Early Hickerson, 40, was sentenced Wednesday after being found guilty of capital murder in the killing of Amalia Alexander on September 19, 2016.
“Eight years is too long for anyone to have to wait for justice, but our Domestic Violence Division was able to get life without parole, which was the appropriate sentence,” Ogg told the audience. “This case is horrible and shows exactly why we take every allegation of domestic violence so seriously — too often it escalates to homicide.”
Hickerson murdered Alexander just days after she filed an assault charge and protection order against him following an encounter at a north Houston IHOP in which he punched her.
During the trial, jurors heard evidence that Hickerson sought to persuade Alexander into dropping the accusations, including proposing to her in an attempt to keep her from testifying. When those efforts failed, Hickerson murdered Alexander in her apartment and buried her body in a field in Montgomery County.
After Alexander disappeared, her family filed a report with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Hickerson was meant to be at work by 6 a.m., but surveillance video showed her leaving her apartment at 5 a.m. on the day she went missing.
Alexander’s smartphone led investigators to the field where her body was buried in a shallow burial two months after she went missing. After reviewing Hickerson’s cell phone data, authorities discovered he was in the same field where her remains were discovered two days after she disappeared.
Hickerson was arrested and charged with capital murder, but he was eventually released on bond. While free, Hickerson interfered with his GPS ankle monitor and choked a different girlfriend, prompting his arrest.
Assistant District Attorneys Steve Walsh and Mary McFadden handled the case.
Hickerson received an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He will never be eligible for parole or freed from prison.