The Drug Dealer, The Guns, and the Instagram Messages

Watch the Day 3 Witnesses:

Day 3 of the Uriah Urick capital murder trial delivered testimony that will be hard for any juror to forget. The State called four witnesses who painted a picture of what allegedly happened after 61-year-old Tammy King was shot in her Baycliff home and what these teenagers were saying to each other in the weeks before she died.

If the prosecution's case felt circumstantial before today, it doesn't anymore.

The Near Miss

The State opened Day 3 with Officer Rodolfo Salinas, a young patrol officer who was clearly nervous. This was his first time testifying in court. He was working night shift in Frier, Texas on February 7th going into February 8th, 2025 when he pulled over a white sedan for a flickering headlight.

The driver was Travis Hodge. In the back seat were two people Salinas didn't identify at the time. He ran Hodge's license, found nothing, gave him a verbal warning, and let him go. It was just after midnight on February 8th.

What Salinas didn't know is that he had just let a capital murder suspect go. The body cam footage showed the entire encounter. Uriah Urick was sitting in that back seat with guns from the crime scene, heading toward Mexico with his drug dealer at the wheel.

The Drug Dealer

Travis Hodge is 36 years old, sitting in Galveston County Jail, and testifying as part of a plea deal. Ten years. That's what he's getting for hindering apprehension and manufacturing/delivery of methamphetamine. In exchange, he told the jury everything.

Hodge knew Uriah as "Percy." He'd sold him meth five or six times. On February 7th, Hodge saw a social media post saying Uriah and Tara were wanted for credit card abuse. He reached out to ask what was going on.

Uriah's response: "It was self-defense."

Then Uriah asked for a ride to Illinois. Hodge said no, but offered to take him to Mexico instead. The border was closer. Uriah agreed to pay $1,000.

Hodge drove to an apartment in League City to pick them up. They came out with bags, something wrapped in a blanket, and a dog. They tried to get the dog in the car, but Uriah told Tara to leave it.

At a Walgreens, Hodge tried to talk sense into them. Turn yourself in if it was self-defense. Uriah said he couldn't "because of the position of the body."

Think about that. Not because of the evidence. Not because of witnesses. Because of the position of the body.

Later, at a convenience store in Alvin, they stopped to buy snacks and smoke meth together. Hodge said Tara seemed newer to smoking, that Uriah had to help her with the pipe. During this stop, Uriah mentioned something else: he couldn't get the smell of burning flesh out of his nose.

They made it through the traffic stop in Frier. They made it to Laredo. Hodge dropped them at a homeless shelter called Bethany House and drove back to Baycliff. But not before Uriah handed him two guns and told him to do whatever he wanted with them.

The next morning, Uriah confirmed over WhatsApp that one of those guns, the AR-15, was the murder weapon.

The Guns

Sergeant Ira Fowler, a 20-year law enforcement veteran now with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, pulled over Travis Hodge on February 26th. Traffic violation. Hodge volunteered that he had drugs in the car and gave consent to search his storage unit.

Unit 191. Inside were the guns Uriah had given him. A handgun and an AR-15 with magazines. The state believes the AR-15 was the weapon used to kill Tammy King.

The Instagram Messages

Detective Arturo Espinosa executed search warrants on both defendants' Instagram accounts. What he found in those direct messages will likely define this case.

The jury heard message after message between "southparkemo" (Tara) and "southparkemoowner" (Uriah) from late January 2025. Ten to eleven days before Tammy King was killed. These weren't vague threats. They weren't dark jokes. They were planning.

January 25th, Uriah messaged Tara: "I don't want to kill her if it ruins our lives or isn't on your command."

Tara responded that she hated her grandmother.

Uriah asked: "Do I kill her next time, if there is a next time?"

Tara said she would regret it only because she wanted to be the one to do it. Uriah responded "Good" and said if she got the kill, he'd take the "50 XP assist," referencing video game terminology for experience points earned by helping someone else get a kill.

Tara wrote that she was close to grabbing the gun herself during an argument. Uriah told her not to use a knife if they argued in the kitchen because her grandmother could use it against her. He offered to "handle it" instead and "disable her" so Tara could finish it with the weapon.

This went on for pages. Day after day. Message after message.

Then came February 7th, after Tammy King was found. Uriah's messages to people trying to help him were brief and telling: "Self defense, ran. No lawyer, no family, just cash."

The detective read these messages out loud, one after another, as the jury watched the actual screenshots displayed in the courtroom. Court broke for the day mid-testimony, which means there's more to come.

What This Means

Look, I cover trials because I believe in the process. Everyone deserves their day in court. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. That's not a technicality. That's the foundation of our system.

But I'm also here to tell you what I saw.

Today the prosecution showed the jury messages where these two teenagers discussed killing Tammy King for weeks before she died. They showed a witness who drove them to Mexico and heard Uriah describe the position of the body and the smell of burning flesh. They showed the guns that were taken from the scene and eventually recovered.

The defense hasn't had their turn yet. Travis Hodge is a meth dealer with prior convictions who's testifying to save himself. That matters. The Instagram messages are damning, but context matters too. And Tara King is being tried separately. The jury will only decide Uriah Urick's fate in this trial.

But if you're wondering what the State's case looks like at full strength? You saw it today.

Day 4 continues tomorrow.