Houston Man Sentenced to Life for Killing Girlfriend Over Domestic Violence Charges

Jarvis Earl Hickerson, 40, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday for the 2016 murder of his girlfriend, Amalia Alexander. A Harris County jury convicted Hickerson of capital murder following an eight-day trial, during which prosecutors showed he killed Alexander, 32, in retaliation after she filed domestic violence charges against him.

“Eight years is too long for anyone to have to wait for justice, but our Domestic Violence Division was able to get life without parole, which was the appropriate sentence,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “This case is horrible and shows exactly why we take every allegation of domestic violence so seriously — too often it escalates to homicide.”

Hickerson assaulted Alexander days before her murder during a meal at a north Houston IHOP, leading her to file an assault charge and obtain a protective order. When his attempts to persuade her to drop the charges—through begging and proposing marriage—failed, Hickerson murdered her in her apartment on September 19, 2016, and dumped her body in a shallow grave in Montgomery County.

After Alexander’s family reported her missing, Harris County Sheriff’s deputies reviewed surveillance footage showing Hickerson leaving her apartment at 5 a.m. on the day of her disappearance. She had been expected at work by 6 a.m. Investigators later traced her phone to a field in Montgomery County, where they found her remains two months after she was reported missing.

Hickerson’s cellphone records also placed him in the area of the field on two consecutive days following Alexander’s disappearance. He was arrested for capital murder but released on bond. While out, he tampered with his GPS ankle monitor and assaulted another girlfriend. He was rearrested and remained in custody until his trial.

“It was an eight-day trial with a lot of testimony, but there were several key pieces of evidence that were important,” Assistant District Attorney Steve Walsh said. “Those pieces included video of him leaving her apartment when she disappeared and his cellphone records showing that on two consecutive days after she went missing, he was in the area where her remains were later found.”

Mary McFaden, the Domestic Violence Division chief who helped prosecute the case, noted the capital murder charge was linked to the retaliatory nature of the crime. “Retaliation against a witness is a felony, and because Hickerson intentionally killed Alexander in furtherance of that felony, it was capital murder,” she said. “His begging and manipulation didn’t work — because Amalia was strong. At that point, he knew she was not going to back down, so he killed her in retaliation.”

Hickerson received an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He will never be eligible for release.