{"id":8806,"date":"2025-06-23T19:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T19:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/8806\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T19:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T19:39:07","slug":"state-fair-gunman-pleads-guilty-to-aggravated-assaults-on-eve-of-testimony-in-dallas-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/8806\/","title":{"rendered":"State Fair gunman pleads guilty to aggravated assaults on eve of testimony in Dallas trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man charged with opening fire and injuring three people at the 2023 State Fair of Texas<\/a> pleaded guilty Monday morning <\/b>just before jury selection for his trial was to begin.<\/p>\n

Cameron Turner, 23,<\/a> was sentenced to 12 years in prison on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and 10 years for unlawfully carrying a weapon in a prohibited place. The three sentences will run concurrently.<\/p>\n

Turner was indicted on another count of aggravated assault \u2014 a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison \u2014 but prosecutors intend to dismiss that case as part of a plea agreement, his attorney said at a hearing. <\/p>\n

A pool of jurors waited in the halls of the courthouse near downtown Dallas just as Turner entered his plea. Testimony in the long-anticipated trial was expected to begin Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Breaking News<\/p>\n

Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

Turner\u2019s attorney, Michael Todd, told The Dallas Morning News the plea deal was a compromise. Todd believed mitigating evidence may have swayed the jury toward a lesser sentence but going to trial was a \u201crisk.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSome people did get hurt that he didn\u2019t intend to get hurt,\u201d Todd said. \u201cHe felt that he needed to own up for that, and so that\u2019s what he did.\u201d <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney\u2019s office declined to comment. <\/p>\n

Related:Alleged 2023 State Fair of Texas gunman set to stand trial in Dallas this week<\/a><\/p>\n

Gunfire erupted inside the Tower Building about about 7:45 p.m. on Oct. 14, 2023, turning a fun night into frenzied panic. Three people \u2014 two men and a woman \u2014 were wounded and hundreds of fairgoers fled. <\/p>\n

Turner was almost immediately arrested. He told police he was defending himself and his family after feeling threatened by someone who approached him<\/a>, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit. Todd said evidence at trial would have shown that four men moved \u201cin concert\u201d toward Turner. <\/p>\n

Almost two years later, it is still unknown how a gun made it into the park<\/a>. Questions remain \u2014 some of which might have been answered during a trial \u2014 over how the gunman circumvented safety measures and if human error led to lapses in security. One of the victims is suing two companies involved in the fair\u2019s security, accusing them of negligence<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Todd declined to comment about how the gun got onto the grounds, citing the ongoing civil suit. <\/p>\n

The fair ramped up security the following year<\/a> and banned most people from bringing firearms to the annual event.<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Dallas and the State Fair <\/a>over the policy change, arguing it violated state law and \u201cinfringed on Texans\u2019 right to self-defense\u201d because the fair is held on city-owned land, according to Paxton\u2019s statements at the time.<\/p>\n

The Texas Supreme Court<\/a> \u2014 the state\u2019s highest civil appellate bench \u2014 ultimately struck down Paxton\u2019s attempt to halt the new rules on the eve of the 2024 fair. <\/p>\n

Efforts to intervene were renewed this legislative session with a proposal to prevent contractors from banning guns in government-owned public spaces<\/a>. The bill, which did not pass the Legislature\u2019s lower chamber, took direct aim at the State Fair, which contracts with Dallas for the 24-day event. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festivities begin Sept. 26<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man charged with opening fire and injuring three people at the 2023 State Fair of Texas pleaded…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,356,4219,1596,7290,7348,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-8806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-county","13":"tag-state-fair-of-texas","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114734377479198807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806","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=8806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}