Man given 60 years in prison in Diamond Hill smoke shop shooting that killed one

A man was sentenced to 60 years in prison Friday after he was found guilty of murder in a 2021 Fort Worth shooting, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in a social media post.

Hector Deleon, 43, was sentenced by a Tarrant County jury at the conclusion of the trial Friday.

On May 24, 2021, Deleon went into a business, Kool Stuff Smoke Shop on Northeast 28th Street in the Diamond Hill neighborhood, where he shot 34-year-old Christopher Esparza, according to the district attorney’s office.

Esparza died from a gunshot wound to his back and his death was ruled a homicide by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

With a long history of violent crime, Deleon also admitted to wounding Esparza in a previous shooting in 2019, the district attorney’s office said.