A Wise County jury Friday found 20-year-old Austin Acree of Decatur guilty of murder in the 2023 death of 19-year-old Matthew Brown.
AUSTIN JAMES ACREE
Sentencing for Acree, who could face up to life in prison for the first degree felony offense, is set for June 11 in 271st District Court in Decatur.
During three days of testimony, prosecutors laid out their case against Acree, saying he helped plan the death of Brown and took him to Deep Creek where Brown was shot twice in the head and buried in a shallow grave.
“The last thing Matthew Brown ever saw was his friend (Acree) pointing a gun at his face,” District Attorney James Stainton said during closing arguments. “All he could utter was ‘help me.'”
Instead, Stainton argued, Acree shot Brown in the forehead, killing him.
Acree and Brown were best friends, according to testimony from Brown’s mother, Michelle Brown. She said she spoke with Acree the day her son went missing, and in a recorded phone call played for the jury, Acree could be heard telling her he hadn’t seen Brown that day and denied knowing what happened to him.
During the missing person investigation, Wise County Sheriff’s Office investigator Joseph Oliver noted that Acree had posted “RIP” on a post about Brown a few days later, even though there was no evidence yet that Brown was dead.
In a video interview with Oliver shown to the jury, Acree again denied knowing what happened to Brown and mentioned another person who he said had made threats to Brown and himself in the past.
Prosecutors argued a break in the case came on March 20 when an Aurora resident said she saw a missing person poster for Brown and recognized him as being with Acree and Aiden Theberge — who has also been charged with murder in the case — on the afternoon of March 5, 2023, at Theberge’s home.
Investigators spoke with Theberge and were able to secure a search warrant for Acree’s phone and vehicle. Those items were seized at Acree’s work place in Denton.
The same day, police in Big Spring went to the apartment of Justin Carl, a known associate of Theberge and Acree, and seized a gun. Police also found a phone that was later determined to belong to Brown. Carl was later charged with murder in the case.
James Jeffress, a firearms and tool marks expert with the Department of Public Safety crime lab in Garland, testified that he examined evidence collected in the case, and it was his opinion that the Colt pistol seized by investigators matched the bullets found in Brown at his autopsy and the cartridge casing found in Deep Creek near where Brown’s body was found March 21, 2023.
A search of Acree’s vehicle revealed receipts from Big Spring on March 17, 2023, when prosecutors argued Acree brought the murder weapon and Brown’s phone to Carl.
After his arrest, Acree was interviewed twice at the Wise County Jail, and jurors also saw those two videos. Under questioning from Texas Ranger Job Espinoza, Acree continued to deny his involvement in the murder in the first interview.
“I haven’t done anything,” he said to the Ranger. “…I haven’t taken anyone’s life.”
A second interview took place the following day, and after Espinoza said other people involved in the case were talking about what happened and showed Acree photos of the gun and Brown’s phone that had been seized as evidence, Acree said, “I was only quiet because they told me to.”
Acree told the Ranger that they went for a walk into Deep Creek not knowing what would happen. He said Theberge handed him a gun, but he dropped it. He said Theberge then picked it back up and fired it into the back of Brown’s head when he bent over.
Acree said he fired the second shot because Brown “was twitching around” and looked at him and said, “‘Help me twin.'”
“I didn’t want this to happen,” Acree said while crying. “Every night when I go to bed, I see him.”
He said he was threatened that he would be the next to die if he told anybody about what happened.
Prosecutors wrapped up their case by showing the jury text messages from about a week prior to the shooting between Acree and another person, believed to be Theberge, in which the two seemed to be planning what would happen to Brown.
In the text messages, Acree mentioned “I’ll have the .32,” and later said “I want one shot clean.” The text messages also mentioned Deep Creek and burying a body.
Acree’s attorney, David Pearson, called one witness, a neighbor who said he saw Theberge with the Colt pistol in Aurora before the shooting.
Pearson argued that Acree had not stated he waived his rights to speak to investigators when he confessed to the shooting during the second jail interview, and he said that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence that Acree was involved with the shooting.
“How do you even know Austin Acree was even up that creek?” Pearson said during closing arguments. “You must tie it to the evidence.”
The jury deliberated about 30 minutes before delivering the guilty verdict.
Acree elected to have the judge assess punishment rather than the jury.
Theberge and Carl are still awaiting trial in the case.
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