{"id":25140,"date":"2025-06-29T18:29:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T18:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/25140\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T18:29:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T18:29:31","slug":"texas-gunman-matthew-purdy-sentenced-to-60-years-for-murdering-tcu-student-wes-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/25140\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas gunman Matthew Purdy sentenced to 60 years for murdering TCU student Wes Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

A crazed Texas gunman was sentenced to 60 years in prison for randomly shooting a Texas Christian University student<\/a> three times, including once in the back of the head, as the victim\u2019s father slammed the killer\u2019s \u201cdark and ugly soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Purdy pleaded guilty on Thursday to fatally shooting 21-year-old Wes Smith outside Your Mom\u2019s House bar in the West 7th District of Fort Worth, Texas, just after 1 a.m. Sept. 1, 2023.<\/p>\n

Smith, a walk-on at the private D1 FBS school during the 2021 season, was getting his friend into a car to go home when Purdy approached him, the Tarrant County District Attorney\u2019s Office said.<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew Purdy pleaded guilty to murdering TCU student Wes Smith on June 26, 2025. ABC News<\/p>\n

Purdy, who was 21 at the time of the shooting, approached Smith to ask if he knew who his father was before pulling out a gun and shooting the TCU student, WFAA reported,<\/a> citing a police affidavit.<\/p>\n

The junior finance major was struck twice by the crazed gunman\u2019s bullets, once in the stomach and another in the shoulder, before collapsing to the ground.<\/p>\n

Purdy shot Smith a third time in the back of the head as the student lay on the sidewalk to make sure he was dead, the gunman told police, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

During the chaos, Purdy pistol-whipped an 18-year-old woman attempting to flee.<\/p>\n

Purdy was arrested by police two blocks from the shooting scene.<\/p>\n

Wes Smith, a walk-on at the private D1 FBS school during the 2021 season, was helping a friend get into a car when Purdy opened fire. Linkedin<\/p>\n

Purdy, now 23, told investigators he physically attacked the unidentified teen woman and would\u2019ve shot more people, but he had run out of ammo, according to KXAS-TV.<\/a><\/p>\n

He was expected to stand trial in July. His defense team had filed for an insanity defense, claiming Purdy suffered from schizophrenia and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the local station reported.<\/p>\n

His attorneys also claimed Purdy\u2019s mother had a history of mental illnesses and abused drugs and alcohol during the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Smith was shot three times. ABC News<\/p>\n

The shooting happened outside a bar in Fort Worth\u2019s West 7th District just after 1 a.m. Sept. 1, 2023. ABC News<\/p>\n

Purdy pleaded guilty to Smith\u2019s murder, the aggravated assault against the teen and eight other felonies, including robbery, credit card abuse and evidence tampering.<\/p>\n

The murder carried 60 years in prison, and the assault an additional 20 years.<\/p>\n

He was on probation for aggravated robbery at the time of the shooting, according to WFAA.<\/p>\n

Purdy was sentenced to a whopping 206 years behind bars, which he will serve concurrently.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s father, Phillip, hailed his son as a hero for taking the extra bullet, Purdy\u2019s last, so that it couldn\u2019t kill anyone else.<\/p>\n

The elder Smith ripped into Purdy during the sentencing hearing Thursday, calling out the evil in the man who killed his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a dark and ugly soul \u2014 if you have any soul at all,\u201d Phillip Smith said.<\/p>\n

Purdy appeared in court for his sentencing on June 26, 2025. ABC News<\/p>\n

Purdy was sentenced to a whopping 206 years behind bars, which he will serve concurrently. ABC News<\/p>\n

The heartbroken father claimed Purdy murdered more than just his son because of the way he acted during the court proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou physically murdered and executed Wes, but you emotionally and psychologically murdered thousands of other people, including probably everyone in this courtroom,\u201d Phillip Smith said, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

Smith would have graduated from TCU in May.<\/p>\n

He was remembered by his mother, Doree Smith, as a wonderful person who knew how to bring out the best in people.<\/p>\n

Phillip Smith speaks in court on June 25, 2025. ABC News<\/p>\n

Doree Smith takes the stand to speak directly to Purdy. ABC News<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story could have had a different ending, because Wes had a heart to help. If you had just spoken to him, if you had reached out without lashing out, I promise you that Wes would have met you with compassion,\u201d the grieving mother told Purdy in court. \u201cYou didn\u2019t know Wes. You\u2019d never met him, but in that moment, you made a devastating, senseless, evil choice. You decided that you mattered more than he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWes is now in Heaven. You are still on Earth,\u201d she continued. \u201cYou have a chance to give your story a different ending. I pray you can find a different ending by finding God\u2019s love. Live like Wes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crazed Texas gunman was sentenced to 60 years in prison for randomly shooting a Texas Christian University…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,3677,22503,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-25140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-shootings","12":"tag-tcu-horned-frogs","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-us-news","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114768076079857752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}