Man confessed to being hired to set fire in retaliation for unpaid drug debt from victim’s son:
Published by RawNews1st
7:45 pm ( 5-6-2026 )
Man who burned down a home, killing a mother over her son’s unpaid drug debt, was sentenced to life without parole in Galveston, Texas.
Courtney Allen Thompson, Jr., 22, received an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole on Monday for the February 2024 death of 55-year-old Renita Hawthorne.
Both the Galveston Fire and Police Department were called to a home on 39th Street where four people were trapped inside a house on fire.
Firefighters were able to rescue three people, including two children, by breaking through a bedroom window. However, Hawthorne was trapped inside and was later found unconscious inside the home. She was taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Trauma Center, where she later died from carbon monoxide poisoning and thermal injuries.
Galveston County District Attorney Felony Division Chief prosecutor Adam Poole presented surveillance video from multiple residences on the night of the murder showing a black vehicle repeatedly circling the victim’s house while two men, one dressed in a blue hoodie and carrying a red gasoline can, walked towards the house. The men were then seen running away as flames began to rise in the background.
A final ominous message was shown from Faison’s Instagram account the following morning, boasting that they had burned down the victim’s house, that they were prepared to burn down all of Galveston, and that he hoped she was dead.
Galveston Fire Marshall Chris Harrison testified that the pattern of the fire indicated that it was intentionally set with ignition points at each of the doors to the residence. Harrison also testified that laboratory results showed the presence of gasoline near those ignition points.
