Gunpoint Home Invasion — Judge Hits Him With 30 YEARS

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]All right, so I am not going to allow you to withdraw your plea. We're going to go forward with sentencing. Mr. Nix, you may proceed.

[00:00:07]>> Thank you, Your Honor.

[00:00:08]Your Honor, in reviewing >> Right away, the judge shuts the door on withdrawing the plea. That means sentencing is happening now, and the stakes just skyrocketed.

[00:00:20]>> Yes, sir. Obviously, the court seen some of the evidence.

[00:00:23]It's not good evidence.

[00:00:25]But the one thing that I think needs to go in Mr. McGee's favor, obviously, is that he did take responsibility. He did plead. Obviously, he's gotten some some bad legal information in the jail since we were last here at court. That shouldn't change the fact that Mr. McGee has had no criminal history other than some traffic citations and a few failures to appear on those traffic citations before this. He's never been in our system.

[00:00:50]He's never been on probation before.

[00:00:53]He's never been sentenced to prison before because he has no criminal history. Uh Mr. McGee did not live the same life that many of us have lived. In one of the letters that I received from a close friend, they'd known Devon since 2017, so approximately 6 years. Uh Not only did they speak very highly about how Devon typically put himself before others, and he had a very rough childhood. His mother passed away in the front of him at the age of 27. They had no father figure. They were tossed and moved around with their three aunts from 2007 to 2017. They both suffered physical, mental, and verbal abuse from two of their aunts.

[00:01:35]>> Defense is building a classic mitigation argument. Rough childhood, trauma, no criminal history. But here's the question. How much weight does background carry when violence enters the picture?

[00:01:48]>> Uh Mr. McGee also has a 3-year-old child.

[00:01:52]He's never really stood much of a chance. He's never had a positive male figure in his life, and that's not my words, those are the words of close friends and family members that have kind of written on his behalf.

[00:02:05]Uh they were completely shocked and said that this was out of character for him to partake in this crime.

[00:02:13]Uh they believe that he was following his brother. They said that this is not who Devin is.

[00:02:18]Obviously, the court has just what it has in front of them, which is the evidence from that case. And if you just look at the evidence in that case, obviously, it's going to give you pause because of the nature of and the violence that took place in the offense.

[00:02:31]Uh well, our client understands the law of parties, and he knows that he's just as responsible for whatever his brother >> This is where the law of parties becomes huge. Even if you didn't pull the trigger, helping or encouraging the crime can still put you on the hook legally.

[00:02:48]>> did that day.

[00:02:49]I will say that he was not the aggressor or the main aggressor in the situation.

[00:02:54]Uh but [clears throat] crime that they committed was despicable, and he would agree with that.

[00:02:58]Uh he thought that he was going over there to retrieve stolen property. He did not know that his brother was going to start shooting. Uh and in visiting with Mr. McGee, I believe he was also a little afraid and didn't know what to do in the situation once it started going further and beyond what he thought it was going to be.

[00:03:16]>> Further, Mr. McGee has told me that he has found religion.

[00:03:23]He has Uh one of his write-ups has been because they did not warn the jailer when they were going to pray.

[00:03:32]Uh so, that was a one of the write-ups they had. He also had a jumper malfunction with his buttons.

[00:03:38]Uh >> [clears throat] >> but uh he says that his new found religion has given discipline and peace in his life. He has a son now.

[00:03:47]He apparently did not know about that. I believe he became aware of that while he was incarcerated, the child is 3 years old.

[00:03:53]>> [clears throat] >> Uh and he would like to have some sort of a life with his son.

[00:03:59]I would suggest that he get 10 years deferred adjudication probation and if he messes up even one iota, um he's got the full range to deal with.

[00:04:10]Speaking of so, I would I would suggest that he get 10 years deferred probation be put on uh intensive supervision, zero tolerance, and actually be given a chance because based on his criminal history, this is not who he is. Uh this is this is not and and I hope the court doesn't take into account the fact that he tried to withdraw his plea today.

[00:04:34]I think he got some bad information >> about that.

[00:04:36]>> Yeah, he got some bad information in the jail, but he is eligible for probation.

[00:04:40]I would ask that he get probation. And I'd give Mr. McGee a chance to address the court and explain why he should get probation.

[00:04:48]>> I just wanted to let I just wanted to address the base of the whole case.

[00:04:52]I didn't know that. I just my voice said I didn't know that my brother was in the car when he He told me he >> Hang on a second, Devin.

[00:05:00]Just stop. All right. Y'all went over there with a gun.

[00:05:04]Hang on. Hang on. I have watched the video.

[00:05:09]And you were the one who egged your brother on the entire time. I'm not >> And this changes everything. The judge interrupts because the courtroom isn't buying the version of events being presented. When a judge references video evidence directly, that's usually a very bad sign.

[00:05:33]>> You didn't sure that your brother would have done what he did had you not been there. Just in his face, "Do it. Do it.

[00:05:40]Do it." The I've seen it. Hang on.

[00:05:44]I've seen it. There's probably nothing you can say right now that's going to help anything because all you're doing is trying to not take responsibility instead of taking responsibility. This [snorts] is not you, though.

[00:05:57]>> Thank you, Judge. Um You just took the words right out of my mouth.

[00:06:01]>> I'm sorry. [clears throat] >> For not For having no criminal history, we saw him go from zero to 100 in a matter of 2 hours.

[00:06:10]On behalf of Judge Family, we appreciate the court taking the time to address Devin's case to carefully consider all of that evidence.

[00:06:19]This is a unique situation where I don't even feel like I need to argue the PSI.

[00:06:22]You have everything in front of you. I know you recall it. I know you remember it. I know you know the violence there and he was he was responsible for those actions. He needs to be held responsible. I appreciate Mr. Nix's argument. I respect him immensely as a professional.

[00:06:39]He's just doing his job. The worst probation are just absolutely ludicrous for this case.

[00:06:45]I think Jason said it best when he told you, "This is not a gift to Devin. This is a gift to them to let this be over, to stop the nightmare. They deserve to have some peace from this.

[00:06:59]Your brother's gone for the rest of his life.

[00:07:01]You better be glad your exposure is 30 years and that's not a gift to you.

[00:07:04]That's by the graciousness of this family.

[00:07:07]Judge, on their behalf, I respectfully ask 30 years with no parole for Devin Nix.

[00:07:12]>> Got a response to that to two letters.

[00:07:15]>> So, I mean, I appreciate Mr. Nix's argument. I appreciate these letters.

[00:07:19]The problem with these letters is I don't know >> [laughter] >> I I wish if they hadn't seen that the people who are saying what a good person you are and how much remorse you supposedly have uh and that you've taken responsibility saw the video of what happened that night. Um there's not a whole lot of times here in court that with cases we have the opportunity to have pretty much every single part of an offense on video, right? And that makes this unique. It's unfortunate probably in some cases that we don't because probably other people who've done similar things get maybe some breaks that they shouldn't because we don't have all of that. What you and your brother put that family through that night is the stuff that I think I've said this before, the family's probably heard me, I know, tell your brother this. This is the stuff out of a movie.

[00:08:11]This is what makes people have nightmares at night. And you instigated it. You walked with your brother with that assault gun.

[00:08:20]However far y'all had to walk knowing you weren't just going to get property holding a gun.

[00:08:27]Well, you can object whatever you want, but I know what I saw. I know that you instigated him to keep doing it. You showed him how to take the safety off the gun. I remember all of that. So, at this time I'm going to find that you entered your plea of guilty freely and voluntarily.

[00:08:45]Going to find sufficient >> 30 years was the ceiling here, and that's exactly where this landed. What started as a plea for probation ends with decades behind bars. Was this justice or inevitable consequences?

[00:09:01]>> evidence to find you guilty and at this time I'm going to find you guilty of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit aggravated assault. Going to sentence you to a term of 30 years in the institutional division of the Texas Department of