A Texas man had little experience with the criminal justice system before he was the victim of an armed attack in Killeen last year. During a recent hearing in a Bell County courtroom, he learned more than he ever wanted to know.
“I’m not familiar with the justice system, so I was curious to see how it worked,” Jerrion Levesque told the Herald on Monday. Levesque, 31, works for a recycling company and is in the process of getting his commercial driver’s license. “I was surprised that he would get away with shooting two unarmed people in broad daylight. In fact, I didn’t know he fired five shots until I saw the video.”
The defendant, Alexander Winder, 46, was indicted on May 31, 2023, by a Bell County grand jury on two second-degree felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He pleaded guilty to both charges on May 9. On August 29, after a lengthy sentencing hearing in the 264th Judicial District Court, Judge Paul LePac sentenced Winder to eight years of deferred trial probation. As a condition, Winder must surrender to the Bell County Jail by September 29 and serve 40 days of his sentence. He was also ordered to pay $3,118.11 in restitution and is not permitted to possess firearms.
Winder was released from Bell County Jail on April 24, 2023 after posting $100,000 bail.
On April 15, 2023, at a home in the 3800 block of Water Oak Drive in Killeen, Winder fired five rounds at Levesque and his 22-year-old brother as they ran toward a vehicle parked along the road. Winder had given the two permission to be at the home to pick up parts for Levesque’s motorcycle. A neighbor’s doorbell camera captured the two making multiple trips to the car to load the parts.
Levesque and his brother each testified in court that they didn’t know why Winder pointed the gun at them or chased them while they were in the garage. Photos presented as evidence at last week’s hearing showed three of the five bullets struck Levesque’s car.
“I’ve never been shot before,” he said. “He was released from jail the day after he was arrested. He was arrested again on a second charge and then released again, so he only spent a day and a half in jail on this shooting.”
During the hearing, one of Levesque’s achievements — he was a novice Golden Gloves boxer in his 20s — was used against him. Levesque said he did not hit Winder or his wife, as Winder claimed during his testimony.
“I saw the look on the judge’s face and I thought, ‘OK, he’s not going to believe this,'” he said. “The judge even asked if there were any photos of bruises (on Winder or his wife) and the answer was no. I think this judge is comfortable letting people lie to him.”
To make matters worse, Levesque still hasn’t gotten his entire bike back: He dropped it off at Winder’s home in January 2022 for a routine frame replacement, but after more than a year of delays, in April 2023, Levesque said he had given up on Winder and wanted his bike back.
“I told the judge that parts were missing,” he said. “(Winder) tried to make it seem like I was asking for more work, but we had an agreement from the beginning. I bought the parts he needed online and sent them to him. It couldn’t have been easier.”
