Charges Were Dropped in a 2015 Kyle Double Killing. Now He Is Charged Again.

A man once charged in two Kyle killings walked free two years ago. Now he is back in a jail cell, more than 11 years after the two bodies were found.

Larry Simon, 52, was picked up in Bedford County, Tennessee. A Hays County grand jury charged him again with capital murder. Word of the new charge came on September 2. Simon sits in the Bedford County jail. He is waiting to be sent back to Texas.

This is not a case that DNA cracked open. Police have not named a lab test or any new science. What they point to is old fashioned leg work. More interviews. More questions. More years.

The story starts on June 25, 2015. Jim Wright's father had not heard from his son in days. He asked police to go check. Officers drove to a rental house on South Sledge Street in Kyle. They smelled something bad at the door. Inside they found two people dead.

The two were James "Jim" Wright Jr., 45, of Kyle, and Tina Combs, 44, of Arlington. Wright rented the house. Combs was visiting from the Dallas area. Both died from gunshot and knife wounds, the Hays Free Press reported. Autopsies ruled both deaths murders.

For years the case sat. It was the only unsolved killing in Kyle in a decade, the Austin American-Statesman reported at the time. Kyle detectives worked it with help from the Texas Rangers. CBS Austin reported they put in thousands of hours.

Then came February 2021. Simon was already locked up in the Hays County jail on drug charges that had nothing to do with the killings. Police say he had been on their list from the start. He used to work for Wright. He used to live in the same house. Officers walked in with two capital murder warrants. A judge held him with no bond.

"In some ways it can make people think we've forgotten about the case, the victims and the family members, and that has never been the case," Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett said in 2021.

But the case did not go to trial. In March 2024, Judge Sherri Tibbe threw out the capital murder charge. Simon walked. The reason on paper was short. More work was needed.

"This case was dismissed pending further investigation," Assistant District Attorney Gregg Cox said, according to FOX 7 Austin.

That kind of dismissal does not close a case. It lets police keep digging. And it lets a grand jury take a second look later.

Kyle police say that is what happened. Barnett told FOX 7 that his detectives kept at it after the case was dropped. They went back and asked more questions. They wanted, in his words, "more information, more details, more clarity."

This time a grand jury said yes. The new capital murder charge came down this month. Then came word that Simon was in custody in Tennessee.

"This arrest reflects their commitment to justice and we hope it provides a meaningful measure of closure for the victims' families," Barnett said.

Kyle police also said this in a statement: "We are incredibly proud of the work our detectives have put into the case throughout the years, and hope this arrest will help bring closure to the family."

Simon is from Louisiana. He is not in Texas yet. First, Tennessee has to hand him over. That step is called extradition. It can take weeks. Once he lands in Hays County, the case starts over in court.

A capital murder charge is the most serious charge in Texas. It can mean life in prison with no chance of parole. In some cases the state can ask for the death penalty. Prosecutors have not said which way they will go.

There is one thing worth knowing about a second charge like this. The clock has not helped anyone here. Witnesses get older. Memories fade. Evidence has to hold up after 11 years. The same questions that led to the 2024 dismissal will be waiting in the courtroom.

For the Wright family, the wait has been long. When the first arrest came in 2021, they put out a short note. "Today, the Wright family wants to express gratitude to all of the many friends of our dear Jimmy that have been so supportive of us through these difficult years," the family said.

Five more years have passed since then.

Old Texas killings do get answered. El Tejano wrote in July about a 1997 park murder in Amarillo that DNA finally solved: https://www.eltejanorgv.com/dna-finally-solves-1997-amarillo-park-murder-case/ That case turned on a lab. This one has not, at least not that police have said out loud.

A charge is not proof. Everyone is innocent until a court says otherwise.