Inset: Romi Frentescu (McLennan County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Bruceville-Eddy, Texas, intersection where a father and son were fatally shot (Google Maps).
A Texas man is now on trial in a double-murder case that could expose him to one of the harshest penalties under state law, following the fatal shooting of a father and son.
Romi Frentescu, 33, has been charged with two counts of capital murder, along with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, evidence tampering and making a terroristic threat.
The deadly confrontation unfolded in October 2024 at the crossroads of Mackey Ranch Road and Old Moody Road in Bruceville-Eddy, a small community about 20 miles south of Waco. Authorities say 38-year-old Michael David Morris and 18-year-old Braxton Johnson were killed.
Frentescu was taken into custody soon after the shooting, and proceedings in his trial got underway this week.
Investigators in Texas have described the incident as the result of a violent clash involving rival motorcycle groups.
Prosecutors contend Frentescu was affiliated with the Ugly Man Cossacks, while Morris was allegedly a member of the 1%ers Cossacks.
In its opening statement, the defense capitalized on those dynamics — saying there was long-standing bad blood between Morris and Frentescu and painting Morris as the aggressor on the day in question, according to a courtroom report by Waco-based CBS affiliate KWTX.
Frentescu’s defense team has argued that he fired in self-defense, claiming Morris first confronted him with a switchblade before the shooting turned deadly.
The state, however, sought to cast the defendant in a cruel light.
A witness recalled Frentescu returning to the crime scene and telling a nurse who was rendering aid, “Let him f—ing die.”
The witness also described seeing the shooting.
He said his daughter was outside playing basketball when she screamed about two men arguing in the road. The witness said he went outside to find the bikers “squaring up” as if to have a fistfight but that after someone said “let’s do this,” one of the men pulled out a gun.
Someone in a pickup truck then drove over one of the motorcycles, and four shots rang out — one of the men could be heard screaming, “You just murdered two people. You are going to prison,” the witness testified. Finally, Frentescu fled in a red pickup driven by a woman, the witness said.
A short time later, Frentescu and the woman returned, the witness said. That’s when the defendant allegedly told the nurse to stop attending to one of the victims, according to the testimony.
“There was no remorse for what he had done,” the witness added.
The witness also said he never saw Morris with the alleged knife.
Officers who later arrested Frentescu alleged that the defendant’s lack of visible injuries was inconsistent with his story, according to charging documents obtained by Waco-based Fox affiliate KWKT.
The defense stressed the self-defense theory of the case on Monday.
The defendant’s lawyers said the 1%er Cossacks were incensed at the Ugly Man Cossacks for being a splinter group and had put out a “smash-on-sight order” against the group’s members, including Frentescu.
To that end, the defense said Morris drove by his client’s house on the day of the shooting, revved his engine and made an obscene gesture. This allegedly happened after Morris threatened to burn down Frentescu’s house and kill his dog.
“Romi is a peacemaker,” one defense attorney said. “He tried to calm the situation down. He tried to mediate the situation, but Morris would have nothing to do with that…Romi was defending himself every minute of that day.”
If convicted as charged, Frentescu faces life in prison with no possibility of parole because the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office took the death penalty off the table.
His trial continues this week.
The post ‘Let him f—ing die’: Man killed father and son during roadside altercation and then returned to the crime scene to yell at a nurse rendering aid, prosecutors say first appeared on Law & Crime.
