Man sentenced to death in 2020 for killing Tarrant County store owner

A Tarrant County jury sentenced a man to death Wednesday after he was found guilty of the crime 2020 killing a shop owner during a shop robbery.

Christopher Caron Turner, 48, was arrested in April 2020, days after authorities say he entered a Super Big Country Mart in unincorporated Tarrant County and robbed the store, killing owner Anwar Ali, 62, according to the press – Tarrant’s release. This was reported by the district prosecutor’s office.

On the morning of March 27, 2020, Turner, a convicted felon, entered the store wearing a mask and pulled a gun on Ali. Turner demanded cash, and Ali complied, opening the store’s cash register, the release said.

Turner then cornered Ali into a bathroom where he was fatally wounded. An hour later, he was found.

Turner fled the store in Ali’s minivan, where he found another $50,000 in a black bag. Authorities said Turner then began spending the money on cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes and more before fleeing to Colorado.

He was later arrested by U.S. Marshals and the murder weapon was found in his possession.

During the trial, prosecutors said Turner tried to hold up the sign to jurors as prosecutors asked jurors to give justice to Ali’s family. Turner also reportedly obtained the names and phone numbers of jurors and gave them to another inmate charged in the murder, authorities said.

Ali was a Pakistani immigrant who came to the United States to pursue the American dream before his life was taken “for greed, for an absolute lack of respect for human life,” prosecutors said.

Another man, 33-year-old Joseph Gabriel Allen, is also charged with manslaughter in Ali’s death.