It was approaching 9:30 on Monday morning, and a state district court in Tarrant County was warming up for docket, a weekly legal cattle call in which the status of criminal cases is, in a whirl, reviewed to be sure that they are on a course toward disposition.
Most of the people in the gallery were there on matters other than the one that brought the Austin family. Bailiffs and a magistrate on the bench were unaware that a short proceeding for the Austins’ benefit had been added to the schedule.
A week earlier, Joshua Patterson and a prosecutor had agreed on terms, and the 23-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to murder…