A Brown County, Texas, jury convicted Joseph Dean Williamson of murdering Taylor Hart, and a judge sentenced him to 55 years in prison.

The defense was self-defense: Hart walked up, kicked the truck and dared him to fight. Prosecutors answered with six months of messages, six eyewitnesses and one line a witness says Williamson spoke before firing. A fistfight invitation is not a deadly threat, and the jury needed little time to say so. Then came the 100 mph chase, which told jurors what he did next.

A Brown County jury convicted Joseph Dean Williamson of murder in the death of Taylor Hart after a short deliberation, and on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, Judge Mike Smith sentenced him to 55 years in prison, District Attorney Micheal Murray said, according to Brownwood News. KTAB/KRBC and KTXS also reported the sentence. The jury also convicted Williamson of felony evading arrest, and the judge assessed a 10-year sentence on that count, Brownwood News reported.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Williamson shot Hart in the chest with a .40-caliber handgun on Dec. 27, 2023, according to the district attorney's account published by Brownwood News. The two men had been at odds because Williamson had slept with Hart's girlfriend on several occasions, despite being married, and they had exchanged messages and phone calls about settling it with a fistfight, prosecutors said. Williamson had also brandished a pistol at Hart's cousin and a friend before the shooting, according to the account.

That day, prosecutors said, Williamson was sitting in a parked vehicle near Avenue E and Fifth Street in Brownwood, waiting for a drug dealer to deliver methamphetamine, when Hart and his girlfriend drove by. Hart got out, walked up to Williamson's truck, invited him to step out and fight, and kicked the vehicle, according to the district attorney. Williamson pointed the gun at Hart, and one witness said he told him, "I'm not going to fight you, I'm going to shoot you," Brownwood News reported. A single bullet struck Hart's heart and other vital organs, and he died a short time later at Hendrick Medical Center in Brownwood, prosecutors said.

Williamson gave investigators multiple conflicting accounts of why the shooting was self-defense, the district attorney said. Detective Peyton Donahoo, the lead investigator, analyzed a large amount of digital evidence that prosecutors said showed Williamson provoked the conflict over a six-month period, and jurors heard from six eyewitnesses, according to Brownwood News. Prosecutors said Hart never used force against Williamson before he was shot. After the shooting, Williamson fled, and an Early Police Department officer spotted him and pursued him at speeds over 100 mph before he was taken into custody at his grandmother's house, the district attorney said.

During the punishment phase, prosecutors presented evidence that Williamson had threatened others with a firearm on several occasions, including threatening his wife with a sawed-off shotgun, Brownwood News reported. Several witnesses testified about the loss of Hart to his family and friends. Murray said he appreciated the jury "sending the message that the rule of law will prevail in cases like this one," according to the outlet. Assistant District Attorney Elisha Bird also tried the case. The reports did not say whether Williamson plans to appeal. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.