Man gets death sentence for executing store owner

A Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Turner, 48, to death for executing a convenience store owner during a robbery.

Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

As Bangs on Wednesday asked the jury to give the victim's family justice, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury. Sheriff's deputies handcuffed Turner, removing him from the courtroom as he yelled "she lied."

Around 6:15 a.m. March 27, 2020, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth.

There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store. Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money.

Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and executed him.

Seconds later, Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag.

About an hour later, Ali was discovered dead in the bathroom of the convenience store, shot in the neck.

Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado. There, U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm, which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors, and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. It's now long past time for the Ali family to find justice, she said.

Decades ago, Ali came to the United States from Pakistan to pursue the American dream.

"He was a good person," Bangs said. "On March 27, 2020, at the age of 62, he was wiped away in an instant ... for greed, for absolute lack of respect for human life."

Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced.

"Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."

DA Investigator Benjamin Lopez and former DA Investigator Jim Rizy, along with Victim Advocate Cecilia Jones, worked on this case.

‍