A Tarrant County jury has sentenced 29-year-old Xavier Bass to life in prison for murdering his father, retired Army Master Sgt. Gene Bass, in a Fort Worth front yard shooting that prosecutors say was planned for months. Xavier drove more than 800 miles from Georgia to his father’s home, shot the 54-year-old JROTC teacher 12 times, including twice in the head, then fled back across state lines before he was arrested the next day.
The case, detailed in a statement from the Tarrant County DA, laid out how Xavier parked his Ford Mustang outside his father’s home on June 28, 2024, walked up to Gene Bass with a pistol, and opened fire as his father tried to run. According to a Fort Worth police arrest affidavit reported by WFAA, Xavier had approached his father in the yard while repeatedly tossing a small handgun into the air, prompting Gene Bass to warn him, “Boy, stop playing with that gun before you shoot someone,” moments before the shooting began.
Home surveillance video and eyewitness accounts from a landscaping crew working at the residence showed Xavier chasing his father and firing at him while Gene Bass tried to crawl under a landscaper’s trailer for cover, according to a report from KLIF-AM. Assistant District Attorney Ashlea Deener, who prosecuted the case alongside Anthony Salinas, told jurors the shooting left no ambiguity about intent. “This is absolutely a life sentence case,” Deener said, according to the Tarrant County DA’s statement.
A Motive Rooted in Childhood Resentment
Investigators say the killing was not a spontaneous outburst but the culmination of long-simmering anger. A police affidavit cited by CBS News revealed Xavier told his girlfriend he harbored deep resentment toward his father, believing Gene Bass had abandoned him as a child and left him to struggle alongside his mother. Weeks before the shooting, an arrest affidavit stated Xavier broke down and told his girlfriend he needed to drive to Texas and that she would find out why when she saw it on the news, according to FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth…