He Planned the "Self-Defense" Excuse Before the Murder

Three days before 61-year-old Tammy King was shot in her Bacliff, Texas home, her granddaughter's boyfriend was texting friends about killing someone. And he was already planning his excuse.

"Going to kill him and go to his trailer to raid it, by the way," Uriah Urick wrote to a friend named Jaden on February 2nd, 2025. When Jaden asked why, Uriah replied: "Self-defense cuz strange man I've never seen in the house."

His friend told him "you should not do that." Three days later, Tammy King was dead.

This is what premeditation looks like in the digital age. You don't need a handwritten manifesto. You don't need witnesses to a planning session. You need an 18-year-old who thinks text messages disappear.

Sergeant Larry Williamson, a digital forensics detective with over 20 years in law enforcement, walked the jury through thousands of messages extracted from four phones. What he found was devastating for the defense.

The Murder Weapon Video

At 12:16 AM on February 5th, 2025, roughly nine hours before investigators believe Tammy King was murdered, Uriah recorded a video on his phone. In it, he's holding a Ruger firearm. Williamson read the serial number aloud in court: 85697352.

That's the murder weapon. In the defendant's hands. Hours before the killing.

The digital trail doesn't stop there. On February 2nd, Uriah texted another friend: "I want to watch a 5.56 shred someone flesh off their body in slowmo." Tammy King was killed with a 5.56 caliber AR-15.

On January 15th, 21 days before the murder, Uriah photographed the combinations to all the gun safes in Tammy's home. On January 19th, he recorded himself inside one of those safes.

The night before the killing, at 11:01 PM, he messaged Jaden again: "Hey bro. Need you down here tomorrow to drive us. Got it all. Guns, drugs, kit and everything."

By morning, he was texting a contact named Nate: "I got 10 grand or so and guns. Need to move. Now... cannot be in Texas."

The "Setup" Video

Williamson also testified about what he called a "setup video" found on the defendants' phones. In it, Tara and Uriah walk through Tammy's bedroom, pointing at items and making claims about orgies and drug use. The detective said the story kept changing: sometimes it was "three days" of this behavior, sometimes "four days," sometimes "one."

When Williamson searched Tammy King's entire phone, he found zero evidence of hard drug use and zero evidence of the sexual behavior they described. Her medical report showed no drugs in her system.

The Defense Pushes Back

Defense attorney Hackney challenged Williamson on cross-examination, arguing that the absence of drug evidence on Tammy's phone doesn't prove she never used. Fair point. People don't always document their drug use.

But Williamson didn't flinch. "But that doesn't mean you get to murder her either," he fired back.

That moment crystallized something important. Even if every terrible thing Uriah and Tara alleged about Tammy King were true, even if she did use drugs, even if the household was chaotic, none of that justifies what happened. And more importantly, the text messages show this wasn't some spontaneous act of self-defense. This was planned. Texted about. Joked about. Prepared for.

What This Means

In my father's era, proving premeditation required witnesses, documents, maybe a recorded phone call if you were lucky. Today, teenagers hand prosecutors their entire case on a silver platter because they don't understand that "delete" doesn't mean "gone."

Uriah Urick texted about killing someone. He photographed safe combinations. He recorded himself with the murder weapon. He messaged friends about escape routes. And when the detective pointed this out, he sat in that courtroom and watched his own digital footprint become the prosecution's most powerful evidence.

The presumption of innocence still applies. The jury will decide. But this testimony? This is what a case built on digital evidence looks like. And it's devastating.

▶️ WATCH THE FULL TESTIMONY Texts Reveal Teen Planning "Self-Defense" Murder Days Before Grandma Shot

Watch the system. Question everything. And remember: in 2026, your text messages are your testimony.