Former Godley resident sentenced to death

A Nueces County jury deliberated for three hours and 15 minutes Wednesday before sentencing former Godley resident Gary David Green to death. 

The jury deliberated less than half an hour on Monday before finding Green guilty of capital murder. Once the sentencing phase of the trial began, jurors had the option of sentencing Green to life in prison without parole or death.

Green, 56, stood trial for the October 2013 shooting death of Upton County Deputy Billy “Bubba” Kennedy in McCamey, a town of about 2,000 about 50 miles south of Odessa.

The case switched venues several times before ultimately landing in Nueces County.

Laurie English, elected district attorney for the 112th Judicial District, led the prosecution and visiting Judge Tessa Herr served as judge.

English said jury selection in the case took nine weeks and that Green’s trial ran from June 12 to Wednesday.

The shooting occurred on Oct. 2, 2013, shortly after Green’s credit card was declined at a McCamey convenience store and he demanded free gas, according to the Corpus Christi Caller Times.

Kennedy and another deputy responded to the scene. A check of the license plate of the truck Green was driving revealed that the truck had been reported stolen out of Odessa earlier that day.

As the deputies approached the truck Green opened fire. Both deputies returned fire but Kennedy died at the scene.

A stretch of U.S. 349 in Upton County was renamed the Deputy Billy Frank Kennedy Jr. Memorial Highway in March 2018, according to the Odessa American.

Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded in 1998 to Green’s Godley home after he allegedly assaulted his wife. Green, in 2007 in the 249th District Court, was convicted of assaulting his mother for which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.