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Sherene Lavett Washington-Harper, 55, was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday, April 28, 2025, after a jury convicted her of murdering her mother, Irene "Momo" Gray, 76, in Texas City, Galveston County, Texas.

Gray owned the house on Amburn Road where Washington-Harper lived with her adult son. According to a probable cause affidavit, Gray had begun eviction proceedings against her daughter and grandson. Gray's granddaughter, Irene Smith, Washington-Harper's daughter, told officers Gray was evicting them when she was killed. A District Attorney's Office release said Gray had reported financial, physical and emotional abuse to Adult Protective Services and Texas City police in the months before her death.

Texas City police found Gray dead inside the home during a welfare check on Friday, October 13, 2023. Police said her injuries were consistent with gunshot wounds. The District Attorney's release said she had three gunshot wounds, officers recovered five bullets, and the murder weapon was never found. Three of Gray's great-grandchildren, ages 3, 8 and 14, were in the home. The 8-year-old called 911 after finding Gray unresponsive on the floor.

Detectives believed Gray was killed after she began the eviction and said the bullets came from a small-caliber gun like one Washington-Harper owned, according to the affidavit. Police interviewed Washington-Harper and her adult son, the only other adults on the property. He said he was asleep and heard nothing. Washington-Harper denied involvement and, when pressed, would not say who shot her mother, only that her son was the only other person there. In her recorded Texas City police interview on Friday, October 13, 2023, the day Gray was found, she denies any involvement, and detectives tell her they will test her for gunshot residue. No result of that test has been reported.

Washington-Harper was 54 when arrested in October 2023. She was booked into the Texas City Police Department jail on October 20, 2023, charged with murder and held on a $250,000 bond. A Galveston County grand jury indicted her for murder on December 21, 2023. In January 2024 Washington-Harper was jailed on a $255,000 bond for murder and terroristic threat; no outcome of the threat charge has been reported.

Her trial, cause number 23-CR-3842 in the 122nd District Court of Galveston County, began April 21, 2025. Prosecutors Casey Kirst and Kate Willis presented evidence that Gray had moved to formally evict her and phone videos Washington-Harper recorded of arguments in which Gray could be heard begging her daughter to leave the house, according to the District Attorney's release. Washington-Harper testified in her own defense. Her adult son testified for her, saying he could account for all her time except the half hour in which the murder occurred. Audio captured on Texas City Fire Department video footage determined the precise time of the five gunshots. The 8-year-old told jurors she was asleep in the room with her great-grandmother when she heard several loud bangs, woke to see a shadow in the doorway, and later identified the shadow as Washington-Harper, her grandmother. The jury returned a guilty verdict on the murder charge after less than two hours of deliberation before imposing the sentence.

Washington-Harper filed notice of appeal on April 28, 2025, in the First Court of Appeals of Texas, No. 01-25-00308-CR. The court abated the case on January 8, 2026, and reinstated it on September 25, 2026, with her brief due October 26, 2026. As of late October 2026, the docket listed no brief or opinion, and the appeal was pending.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.