Prosecutors said a drug debt dispute led to the fire that killed 55-year-old Renita Hawthorne.

GALVESTON, Texas — A Galveston County jury convicted Courtney Allen Thompson Jr. of capital murder in the 2024 arson death of Renita Hawthorne, a 55-year-old mother killed when flames trapped people inside a home on 39th Street.

The verdict ended a case built around a fire that prosecutors said was set to collect on a debt owed by Hawthorne’s son, who was not inside the house when it burned. Thompson received an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole after jurors found that the fire was intentional and deadly. The case put the focus on how a dispute aimed at one person instead killed another, while also endangering three survivors, including two children.

The fire broke out Feb. 29, 2024, at a home in the 700 block of 39th Street, also described in reports as 715 39th Street near Avenue H. Galveston fire and police crews arrived to find four people trapped inside. Firefighters broke a bedroom window and used a ladder to pull three people from the burning house. Hawthorne was found unconscious inside and later died after being taken for medical care. Prosecutors said her death was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning and thermal injuries. Galveston County prosecutor Adam Poole told jurors that the fire was not only meant to damage the home but to block escape. He argued that flames had been set at the entry points, turning the house into a trap for anyone inside.

Investigators soon classified the blaze as arson. A fire marshal found that the outside stairs had been intentionally set on fire, and an arson dog detected an accelerant on the stairs. That finding became central to the state’s case because it explained why people inside could not leave through ordinary exits. Prosecutors said Thompson poured gasoline at entry points of the home before flames spread. The state also presented surveillance video showing a vehicle in the area and two men walking toward the house, one carrying a gas can. Video later showed the men running away without the can. The timing, prosecutors said, matched the start of the fire and helped connect Thompson to the scene.

The trial also centered on threats that came before the fire. Hawthorne’s son testified that Xavier Faison, also known as Saccathon, had threatened him and his mother over a drug debt. Faison was not charged in the arson. Court records and testimony described messages sent to Hawthorne’s son, including “See y’all ready to play” and a question about whether his mother drove a truck with a busted window. Prosecutors used those messages to show the fire followed a conflict that had reached Hawthorne’s family. They said the intended target of the pressure was not home when the fire was set, but Hawthorne and others were.

Other evidence followed Thompson before and after the fire. Cellphone information and a traffic stop led detectives to a gas station on 53rd Street, where surveillance video showed Thompson and another man buying and filling a gas can hours before the fire. Investigators then tied that stop to video near the home. Prosecutors also told jurors that Faison posted a video to Instagram after the fire and bragged about it, saying he was prepared to burn down all of Galveston and hoped Hawthorne was dead. The defense position detailed in public reports was not enough to overcome the state’s sequence of texts, video, fire findings and testimony.

Jurors also heard from a jailhouse informant who said Thompson admitted setting the fire. The informant testified that Thompson said he had been hired to do it in retaliation for the drug debt. Prosecutors said the informant came forward because Thompson was bragging about the death of an innocent woman. Jailhouse informant testimony can draw close attention in criminal trials because it depends on a witness recounting what a defendant allegedly said in custody. In this case, prosecutors paired that testimony with the gas can evidence, surveillance video, the arson findings and the messages that preceded the fire.

Poole, chief of the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office felony division, framed the fire as an act meant to kill, not only frighten. During closing arguments, he said setting fires at the doors showed intent to trap and kill everyone inside. He likened the act to building a tomb and setting it on fire. The jury began deliberating May 1, then returned after a weekend recess and found Thompson guilty May 4. Under Texas law, the capital murder conviction carried an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole because prosecutors did not report a separate punishment hearing in the public accounts of the case.

For Hawthorne’s family, the verdict answered the criminal charge against Thompson but did not change the loss at the center of the case. The fire killed a woman prosecutors described as an innocent person caught in a dispute involving someone else. Three people survived only after firefighters broke through a bedroom window. The case also left unresolved public questions about Faison, who was named in testimony and reports but had not been charged in the arson. Prosecutors identified him as part of the conflict that preceded the blaze, while the conviction rested on Thompson’s role in setting the fire.

With the May 4 verdict, Thompson’s trial ended in a mandatory life term without parole. Any further challenge would move through post-conviction court filings, while the Galveston case record now centers on the fire investigators said was set at the home’s escape routes.

Author note: Last updated May 26, 2026.