District Attorney Reacts to Wollner Murder Verdict

The 119th District Attorney George McCrea’s office released their statement on the verdict today in the case State vs. Wollner.

Treston Wollner was found guilty of first degree murder of Samuel Sterling Harrison yesterday in San Angelo and faced a sentence of five to 99 years in prison. The jury returned a sentence this afternoon of 11 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Wollner was booked back into the Tom Green County Jail and will be processed into the State Penitentiary system immediately.

For those not familiar with the murder case, the trial revealed that:

On December 23, 2012, Wollner along with several others met at a ranch in outer Tom Green County for a party near Dove Creek.

At some point in the evening, there was a physical altercation between Wollner, the victim, as well as a couple of other people at the party. 

After the altercation, the victim went and laid down in a truck bed. 

Wollner approached the truck with a shotgun, pulled a blanket off the victim and backed away and engaged him in a verbal altercation from a distance. 

During the course of the verbal altercation, the Wollner was armed with a shotgun; the victim was unarmed, wearing only boxers and socks.

Wollner challenged the victim with statements described as “don’t think I won’t”, “show me you’re a real man”, and “come on *expletive*.” 

The victim approached the defendant in what was described as “between a power walk and a jog.” 

Wollner shot and killed the victim, Samuel Sterling Harrison.

The DA said that Wollner will be eligible for parole after serving at least half of the 11 year sentence.

“The right to self defense is an important one, however it is not an excuse to kill. Firearms, alcohol and teenagers often lead to tragic results,” Assistant 119th DA Jason Ferguson said in a press release.

 “We appreciate the work of the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Ranger that conducted the investigation. We also appreciate the jury’s service on the case and the difficult choices that they had to make to reach a decision that they believed to be just,” he said.

The 119th DA's office attorneys Jason Ferguson and Meagan White, both Assistant DAs, prosecuted the case.

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Correction: The DA was originally attributed to 51st DA Allison Palmer. The press release came from her email address. We have corrected this to reflect that the prosecutors were from the 119th DA George McCrea and the quotes correctly attributed to Asst. DA Jason Ferguson.