A Paroled Brazos County Murderer Is Returning To Prison

Photo of the entrance to the Brazos County courthouse, April 13 2016.
Photo of the entrance to the Brazos County courthouse, April 13 2016.

Photo of Robert Lee Johnson III from https://portal-txbrazos.tylertech.cloud/JailSearch/default.aspx
A College Station man on parole for a murder that happened in Bryan in September of 1991 is returning to prison.

That’s after a Brazos County district court jury earlier this month convicted 61 year old Robert Lee Johnson III of pointing a loaded gun and threatening to shoot a woman in College Station on July fourth in 2024. The trial judge then sentenced Johnson to 45 years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Court records show Johnson was originally indicted for capital murder. But a news release from the district attorney’s office says Johnson pleaded guilty to murder from the drug related shooting and served 25 years of a life sentence before he was released on parole in 2016.

News release from the Brazos County district attorney’s office:

Robert Lee Johnson was convicted of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon by a Brazos County jury on February 4, 2026. At the conclusion of Johnson’s punishment hearing held on February 6, 2026, 361st District Court Judge David Hilburn sentenced Johnson to 45 years in prison.

On July 4, 2024, College Station PD officers responded to a call where the victim reported that Robert Johnson pointed a loaded .38 revolver at her head and threatened to shoot her. Johnson and the victim had been living together and dating for nearly two years.

The victim testified that Johnson had previously threatened her life with a firearm and had also physically abused her. The victim testified she had never called the police prior to this date because she loved the defendant and did not want to see him get in trouble.

Officer George Humes of the College Station Police Department was one of the first responders on scene and testified regarding his experience with many prior family violence cases relating those experiences to his observations of and interactions with the victim during this offense.

Johnson has been previously convicted or Murder in Brazos County in 1992 as well as possession of cocaine in Harris County in 1989. In the previous Murder case Johnson was selling cocaine in Bryan, Texas, when two men attempted to rob Johnson of his drugs. Johnson reached a .38 revolver into the deceased’s vehicle and fired three times. Johnson pled guilty to Murder and served 25 years of his life sentence before being released on parole in 2016.

We would like to thank the College Station Police Department for their work in responding to this crime, and the Court for this appropriate sentence.

Statement from assistant Brazos County district attorneys Kevin Capps and Robert Vetter: “This defendant is a murderer. He pointed another loaded firearm at another human being. This can never happen again.”

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