Dwight Patrick Scott

A man was convicted Thursday and sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a woman on New Year’s Eve 2017 in Kilgore.

Dwight Patrick Scott, 55, of Gary, Indiana, was found guilty of killing Tracy Lynn Reedy, and the jury issued a punishment of life in prison. Reedy, 50, was shot five times and died in the parking lot below her apartment on Meadowgreen Drive.

The trial began Tuesday and concluded Thursday in the 188th District Court in Longview.

Judge Scott Novy said Thursday that Scott will have to serve 30 years before he becomes eligible for parole.

The Gregg County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that the jury heard evidence that Scott moved from Indiana to Texas to rekindle a relationship with a childhood sweetheart.

During an argument Dec. 31, 2017, Scott shot Reedy twice in the head and three times in the chest. According to the DA’s office, Scott took the time to pack belongings into his car before he fled to Indiana.

Clint Johnson, who was a Kilgore police officer at the time of the shooting, arrived on the scene and made his way up to check on a child in Reedy’s apartment.

“(He) was slumped over on the couch,” Johnson said during testimony Tuesday. “Upset and exhausted.”

Neighbor Kendra Choice on Tuesday described what she heard that night: a man and a woman arguing. She said she knew Reedy had a boyfriend but did not know him by sight.

While Reedy was yelling, Choice noted the man seemed to be packing up his vehicle.

“He was like ‘leave me alone,’ ” she said.

She said Reedy was holding a small baseball bat. After a while, she heard four to five gunshots.

“Sounded like a firecracker,” Choice said. She said she went downstairs and told someone, “I think Ms. Tracy got killed.”

Choice became emotional on the stand and described the man as continuing to pack up his car, making about three trips back upstairs to Reedy’s apartment.

“He was calm like nothing happened,” she said.

An arrest warrant for Scott, signed Jan 5, 2018, was issued on the murder charge. Scott was arrested in Gary, Indiana, and booked into the Gregg County Jail on Jan. 17, 2019.

“The jury assessed Scott’s punishment to life in prison for this senseless act of violence,” the DA’s office said in a statement.