SAN ANTONIO – A man charged with murder for a 2024 shooting on the East Side has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said.
Terry Johnson, 58, learned his sentence on Monday for causing the shooting death of 18-year-old Demarion Smith.
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The shooting happened just before midnight on April 5, 2024, in the parking lot of a Dollar Tree in the 2100 block of East Houston Street.
Responding officers found Smith dead at the scene with gunshot wounds to his back and chest.
Johnson, who was 57 at the time of his arrest, admitted to the shooting when he was arrested in June 2025, according to the district attorney’s office. Johnson told authorities he shot Smith in self-defense, but video evidence refuted his claim.
An arrest affidavit stated that Johnson and Smith had engaged in an argument at 9:30 p.m., nearly two-and-a-half hours prior to the shooting.
The affidavit identified Johnson and Smith as both experiencing homelessness. A witness at the scene told police that Smith had been “antagonizing, harassing and even throwing rocks” at Johnson and a group he was with.
According to the affidavit, Johnson left the scene, returned with a gun and shot Smith.
Video camera footage from an H-E-B across the street identified Johnson as the shooter and showed him fleeing the scene after the shooting, according to the affidavit.
“We are grateful that justice has been served in this case,” Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzalez said in a news release. “We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Demarion’s family and hope this verdict can bring some measure of closure.”
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