Galveston killer comes to Harris County for second murder trial

HOUSTON – A Galveston jury convicted 24-year-old Devan Jordon of capital murder on Monday. The jury deliberated for two and a half hours before finding Jordan guilty of shooting Jeffrey Johnson at his League City home in June 2021.

The sentencing follows a months-long crime spree in 2021 that Galveston County said included numerous armed robberies by a gang that followed victims from expensive restaurants to their homes, where they were robbed at gunpoint.

PROPOSED: 21-year-old man released on multiple felony charges and charged with murder when he was supposed to stand trial

Harris County says Jordon killed Josh Sandoval during the same crime spree just two weeks before Johnson's killing. In both cases, authorities say Jordon and other defendants followed the victims to their homes to rob them. Jordon is responsible for killing Johnson and Sandoval in the botched robberies.

Now Jordon will be transferred back to Harris County to face charges for Sandoval's murder. The case is expected to go to trial.

Sandoval's older sister, Aimee Castillo, was in the courtroom Monday when the jury returned its verdict.

“When I heard it, they told us we couldn’t respond. I just said 'thank you' and started crying,” she said.

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It's been three and a half years since her brother was killed, and she says the suspected killer shouldn't have been on the streets in the first place.

“If the court system had done its job properly, he wouldn't have been out,” she said.

In 2022, our Randy Wallace noted in his Breaking Bond series that Jordon was suspected of multiple crimes at the time of the murders.

Records show that even after Jordon was charged and arrested in both capital murder cases – both a Harris County judge and a Glaveston County judge granted him bail – he made the matter public.

Jordon was in delinquency on several bonds totaling $1.6 million by the time the Galveston trial began on Oct. 28.

There is no official trial date for his Harris County case, but records show he has now been denied bail.