The Brazos County district attorney’s office announced a plea agreement with a Bryan man who admitted killing College Station convenience store clerk Kevin Garcia in March 2015 and breaking the jaw of a jail inmate in February 2018.
For both crimes, 39 year old Nathaniel Tillery was sentenced to 50 years.
From a news release issued by the DA’s office, the guilty plea on the murder charge “would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of the victim’s family.” According to assistant district attorney Kara Comte, “The defendant’s sentence gives Garcia’s family a sense of closure and protects this community from a dangerous individual.“
Comte told WTAW News Tillery has not given a reason for killing Garcia.
College Station police reported at the time of the incident that the employee of the Exxon store at University and the freeway, Kevin Garcia, was assaulted and forced into his vehicle.
The DA’s news release reported several hours later, Tillery was arrested in Ft. Worth driving Garcia’s truck with the victim in the bed of the truck. Garcia died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Charges that Tillery committed armed robbery at the store and kidnapping Garcia were dismissed, along with assaulting four detention officers in the Brazos County jail and the Brazos County courthouse since Tillery’s arrest.
Tillery will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years. He was given credit for time served since his arrest in March 2015.
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From the Brazos County district attorney’s office:
Nathanael Tillery, 39, pled guilty today to Murder in the 2015 death of Kevin Garcia. Tillery was sentenced to 50 years as a result of his guilty plea.
Kevin Garcia was reported missing from the Gateway Exxon in the early morning hours of March 17, 2015. Several hours later, Tillery was arrested in Fort Worth, driving Garcia’s truck with Garcia in the bed of the pickup truck. Garcia died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. Video evidence obtained during the investigation confirmed Tillery’s attack on Garcia.
As part of the plea agreement, Tillery also pled guilty to Aggravated Assault Causing Serious Bodily Injury and was sentenced to 50 years on that charge as well. Those sentences will run concurrently.
On February 20, 2018, Tillery assaulted another inmate in the Brazos County Jail, causing that inmate to have surgery to wire his jaw shut. The assault was unprovoked. The victim in that case was unable to defend himself against Tillery’s attack.
The investigation and prosecution of the murder case would not have been possible without the hard work and quick action of the College Station Police Department and the cooperation of the
Fort Worth Police Department. The Brazos County Sheriff’s Department’s professionalism and jail management was essential to the investigation and conviction on the Aggravated Assault while incarcerated.
According to assistant district attorney Kara Comte, “This outcome would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of the victim’s family. Kevin Garcia was doing his job and, as a result, lost his life. The defendant’s sentence gives Garcia’s family a sense of closure and protects this community from a dangerous individual. “