Sugar Land, Texas: Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Shooting His Cousin Dead in a Recording Studio

Five years after he shot his teenage cousin dead inside a Sugar Land recording studio, Christian Perry Menifee is going to prison for 40 years.

Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton announced that Menifee, 25, of Humble, was convicted of murder on Monday and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Under the sentence, Menifee must serve at least 20 years before he is eligible for parole, the district attorney's office said.

The shooting happened on May 15, 2021, inside a recording studio located at a boxing gym in Sugar Land. Menifee and his cousin Tyler Hicks, 19, were among a group of relatives and friends at the studio when Menifee pulled out a gun and fired at Hicks 12 times, according to evidence presented at trial. Several people witnessed the shooting, including a music producer who was in the room. Witnesses testified that everything was peaceful until Menifee started shooting.

Surveillance video recovered by Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office investigators showed Menifee walking out of the studio with a gun in his hand as witnesses fled ahead of him. Menifee got rid of the gun and fled to his home in Humble, where he was arrested the next day. Authorities found the gun a few days later.

At trial, a firearms expert testified that the shell casings found at the scene matched Menifee's recovered gun. Menifee admitted he killed Hicks but argued that he shot him in self-defense. The jury rejected that defense and found him guilty of murder.

Lead prosecutor Justin Foster thanked the jury for holding Menifee accountable. Foster said the jury was also a voice for Hicks, an aspiring musician who was 19 years old and had his whole life ahead of him before it was cut short. Reports of the sentence were published on Thursday by FOX 26 Houston and KPRC in Houston, closing a case that began in a Sugar Land studio in 2021.

The sentence closes a case that took more than five years to reach a courtroom outcome. The shooting was in May 2021, the arrest came the next day in Humble, and the conviction came this week in a Fort Bend County courtroom. The parole threshold in the sentence is half of the 40 year term: Menifee must serve at least 20 years before he is eligible for parole, according to the district attorney's office announcement reported by FOX 26 Houston and KPRC.