14-Year-Old Sentenced to 26 Years for Shooting, Killing Man at Fort Worth Grocery Store

A 14-year-old has been sentenced to 26 years for shooting and killing a man outside of a Fort Worth grocery store last summer.

In the eight months since Spenser Slavik, 36, was killed, his friend Travis Dehorney still has questions.

“I ask God every day why He sent someone to save me, but I could not save him,” Dehorney said Thursday. “I will miss Spenser until I take my last breath.”

Dehorney spoke before Judge Alex Kim on Thursday, when the judge accepted a plea agreement between the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office and the attorneys for now 14-year-old Fabian Adame for Slavik’s murder. Slavik was shot around 7 a.m. on June 22, 2022, during an apparent robbery outside a Kroger grocery store on Camp Bowie West.

Adame, who was 13-years-old at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to 26 years to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) on Thursday.

“It is possible in your case for you to be transferred to the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,” Judge Kim told the teenager. “There is a minimum period of confinement on this for three years. Because of your age, it is possible for you to be released on parole and into the community without seeing me again.”

That decision will be up to the TJJD, Kim said. He warned if Adame’s records indicate he has not been adequately rehabilitated and remains a danger, he will remain in TJJD custody until another hearing before he turns 19.

“If I feel like you have been rehabilitated, it does not matter how serious the offense is. I have released children on parole even on offenses like capital murder because they are no longer a danger,” Kim said. “The ones that continue to be a danger, in my opinion, because they did not take advantage of the services that we are offering, I will happily transfer them to the adult prison system to complete the remainder of your sentence. It’s entirely possible you will be in prison until your 40^th birthday.”

The family of Spenser Slavik was in the courtroom as Kim accepted the deal Thursday. Slavik’s mother Tammy said the past eight months have been painful.

“I cry myself to sleep at night. I can’t find comfort,” Tammy said. “I don’t think the pain’s ever going to go away. I honestly don’t.”

Spenser was the middle child of three siblings. His family lives in Springtown.

“He was a beautiful, beautiful boy. He just genuinely cared and loved people. He didn’t deserve this. By no means,” Tammy said. “I miss his laugh. He had this unique laugh. He had this way about him that was beautiful. I mean, when he walked into a room, it was bigger than life.”

Dehorney met Slavik in 2019 and said knowing him was one of the greatest privileges of his life.

“Spenser is the reason that I stand before all of you today because I was at the doors in the gate of suicide,” he said. “But yet, I met him one day and we were friends.”

Dehorney offered words of grace to Adame’s family, as well.

“You had nothing to do with the taking of his life, but someone you are connected to does. I wish healing upon you,” he said.

Adame’s grandmother Kelly Basham said their family is hurting, as well.

“Anything we say, anything we do is never ever, ever going to be good enough. It’s not going to bring their [Slavik] son back. That pain is very much real. It’s there,” Basham said. “Nothing we say or do is ever going to bring that peace back for them. I hope it brings a little, just to know that we are deeply, deeply sorry.”

Adame’s mother Jessica Norris shared a statement on behalf of her son after court Thursday.

“He’s a very loving kid even though the situation probably don’t seem like it, but he is. He does care. He really does,” Norris said. “He wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t do it in court today.”

Under the agreement, a right to an appeal has been waived. According to county officials, there are currently 14 people within Tarrant County’s juvenile detention center facing murder charges.