A Dallas jury took about three hours. Then it came back with one word. Guilty.

Kewon White was found guilty of capital murder on Friday, September 4. He shot and killed the Dallas rapper Mo3 on a busy freeway in broad daylight. State District Judge Chika Anyiam sent him to prison for the rest of his life. He will never get parole.

Mo3's real name was Melvin Noble. He was 28 years old. He died on November 11, 2020.

Noble was driving north on Interstate 35E in Dallas. It was just before noon. Another car pulled up near his. A man got out with a gun. Noble got out of his own car and ran down the freeway on foot. The man chased him and fired. Noble was hit and died at a hospital. That is what Dallas police said at the time.

A bystander was shot too. That person was sitting in a car close by. Police said the wounds were not life threatening. That person lived.

Prosecutors told the jury this was no street fight gone bad. They said it was a hit. They said White was hired to do it.

The state says the man who paid was another rapper. His name is Markies Conway. Fans know him as Yella Beezy. Conway is charged with capital murder in the same case. He has pleaded not guilty. He has not been convicted of anything here.

Prosecutors say the two men had beef going back years. In 2018, Conway was shot three times on the Sam Rayburn Tollway in Lewisville. Detective Eric Barnes testified that Noble was tied to that shooting.

Jurors saw phone records. They saw bank records. They saw social media posts. The judge even let the state play rap songs in court. Prosecutors used the songs to show motive and intent. Motive means why. Intent means he meant to do it.

Prosecutor Tommy Adams told jurors the plan was built to hide the trail. "They thought they were smart. They picked somebody who nobody knew. A no-name," Adams said.

White did not take the stand. His lawyer, Bree West, told jurors the state never proved a payoff. "There wasn't evidence of a promise of remuneration," West said. Remuneration is a long word for pay.

That one word carries the whole case. In Texas, most killings are charged as murder. A murder turns into capital murder when something extra is true. Killing for pay is one of those things. So is killing a police officer. So is killing a child.

Capital murder brings only two punishments in Texas. One is death. The other is life in prison with no parole. There is no third choice. There is no 40 years. There is no good behavior deal. White got the second one. News outlets reported the sentence was automatic once the jury said guilty.

No parole means no parole board. He does not get a hearing in 30 years. He does not age out at 70. He stays in a cell until he dies.

Those rules do not change from county to county. A capital murder case in Starr County works the same way as one in Dallas County. Same charge. Same two choices. Local readers who follow Valley courts see the same law at work here.

Noble built his name on the 2018 song "Errybody." Almost six years passed between the day he was shot and the day a jury named his killer.

The case is not closed. White is the first person convicted in it. He is not the last one facing a jury.

Conway is next in line. Jury selection in his trial was set to start September 14. He stays charged with capital murder, and he has pleaded not guilty.

A third man, Devin Brown, is also charged in the killing. He has pleaded not guilty too.

White's case is over. The rest of it is not. The next jury gets picked in a matter of days.