KEENE, Texas — Editor's note: The above video initially aired on November 2, 2023.
A pre-trial date has been rescheduled for the manslaughter case involving Ashley Marmolejo Gomez, who was arrested for the role she allegedly played in the 2023 shooting death of Sonic Drive-In employee Matthew Davis, who was killed while working at the Keene location of the chain restaurant.
A Johnson County judge has set 1:30 pm on July 16, 2024, as the date for the proceedings, which will take place at the Johnson County courthouse.
Marmolejo Gomez is charged with manslaughter for her role in the deadly shooting where the convicted gunman was a child.
The shooting happened on May 13, 2023, when Marmolejo Gomez, her husband Angel Gomez and their then-12-year-old nephew were at a Sonic Drive-In in Keene when officers said the 20-year-old Gomez started urinating in the parking lot. The 32-year-old Davis, who was working a shift at the restaurant at the time, then confronted Gomez, which officers said led to a fight between the two parties.
Police said that, as the two were fighting, Marmolejo Gomez handed her 12-year-old nephew an assault-style rifle, which he reportedly fired six times in Davis direction, striking him multiple times.
According to a search warrant, police allegedly found a text from the boy in which he wrote, "my aunt gave me the gun and I was supposed to shoot the ground, and I in accident shot the person."
In October 2023, the boy was found delinquent -- or "the equivalent of guilty," according to court officials -- of Davis murder. A Johnson County judge sentenced the then-13-year-old to 12 years in prison.
Shortly after that verdict and sentencing, Keene Mayor Lisa Parrish issued a proclamation in which November 2, 2023 was formally recognized as "a day to honor the memory of Matthew Leighton Davis." That day would have been Davis' 33rd birthday.
Davis himself spent some of his younger years incarcerated.
"He had a troubled life," his mother Leigh Miller said at the time the mayor issued a proclamation on her son's behalf. "Matthew was not ashamed. He told people about his life... He didn't make a lot of money, and that was not what he was after. He had aspirations and dreams. He wanted to be a chef. He wanted to own his own business. He wanted to start a nonprofit for incarcerated people. There were so many things that he wanted to do."