HOUSTON — A Houston man has been sentenced for the deadly ambush of a 19-year-old who was killed in the fall of 2019.
According to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Treveon Mykel Tatum, 23, was convicted of murder for shooting 19-year-old Ondreus Patterson outside the victim’s home on Oct. 26, 2019, in the Barker-Cypress area.
“No family should ever have to hear that a loved one was gunned down on the street in front of their own home,” Harris County District Kim Ogg said. “We are glad the jury chose to stand with the families of this man’s victims and send him to prison, hopefully for the rest of his life.”
Tatum was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Tatum drove to the house for a prearranged meeting. When Patterson came out to the street to talk, Tatum immediately got out of his car and started shooting, which was caught on surveillance video.
Tatum was arrested on the murder charge days later by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and then set free on a $50,000 bond with an ankle monitor, prosecutors said.
Tatum was still on bond, and wearing the ankle monitor, when he and three other men ambushed two men in an apartment complex’s parking lot off Ella in northwest Houston on Feb. 8, 2022.
In that incident, the two victims were lured to the apartment complex late at night. When they arrived, Tatum and the three others were sitting in a parked car, waiting for them, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video shows that when the victims arrived and got out of their car, Tatum, who was in the driver’s seat, and the men he had with him got out of their car to attack the pair.
Tatum can be seen on video running at the men, firing an assault rifle at them. One victim was shot but survived, prosecutors said. Tatum then ran back to his car to drive away. However, one of the men from his car had been fatally shot.
A man with a gun who had been sitting in the backseat on the passenger side had opened fire as he was getting out.
Prosecutors said the man in the front seat, 20-year-old John Kelly, was also getting out of the car and was shot in the back of the head and killed.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office were able to piece together what happened and charged all three men in the car with felony murder for the death of the fourth man. The other two men are awaiting trial.
After convicting Tatum of murder for killing Ondreus Patterson during a six-day murder trial, jurors saw his actions on surveillance video during the second murder and chose to sentence him to 99 years in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Phillip White, who is a chief in the DA’s Homicide Division, prosecuted Tatum with Assistant District Attorney Matthew Magill.
“We are thankful that the jury saw, rightfully, that everyone in our community is in grave danger when this defendant is out on the street,” White said. “He has shown by his actions that he can’t abide by any rules, including court-ordered rules, so no one is safe.”
Tatum must serve at least 30 years in prison before he will be eligible for parole.
