BRYAN, Texas — On December 16, 2018, Anita Randle, 54, was working at the Valero gas station on Rock Prairie Road in College Station when a man with a gun walked in and demanded money. The mother and grandmother was standing at the register and handed the money over to Rufus Lockett. Lockett, after getting what he wanted, shot Randle in the chest. Randle died from her injuries.
This wasn't the first robbery Lockett, who was 29 at the time, had committed that week. Just three days before the deadly robbery, Lockett walked into the Apple Stop in Bryan and demanded the employee at the cash register hand over the money.
Lockett shot the worker, who nearly died from injuries to their heart.
The Bryan Police Department and the College Station Police Department began working together, investigating both crimes and identified Lockett as the person responsible.
On December 17, 2018, Lockett was arrested and has been in jail since, awaiting his trial. He was indicted for Capital Murder by a Brazos County Grand Jury on March 8, 2019.
On January 28, 2022, the families of the victims were able to get some kind of justice when Lockett, whom investigators said admitted to killing Randle and shooting the employee at the Apple Stop, was sentenced to life in prison. He has no possibility of parole. Lockett, now 33, will spend the rest of his natural-born life in prison.
"This defendant erased one life and altered the course of countless others," First Assistant District Attorney Brian Baker said. "For that, he will never again be permitted to walk free or leave the confines of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice."