A 22-year-old Houston man was sentenced late Thursday to life in prison after being convicted of capital murder for killing an acquaintance while robbing him at his apartment, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.

“This was not a crime of opportunity,” Ogg said. “This defendant coordinated with other people to plan out and complete a robbery and murder, so life in prison is absolutely the most appropriate punishment for a killer like this.”

Jourdan Ellison was convicted of capital murder for killing a rapper he knew, 19-year-old Christian Alexander Lezama, on Sept. 4, 2019.

Ellison, who was 17 at the time, and two other men worked together to rob Lezama at his apartment building in the 1800 block of St. Joseph Parkway in downtown Houston.

Lezama was at home playing video games with three friends and Ellison. During a break in the game, Ellison pulled a gun on Lezama and the other men. He also let two other men into the apartment to help him with the robbery. Ellison demanded Lezama’s money, necklace and diamond-encrusted dental grill.

The robbery quickly escalated into a shouting match and then a violent altercation with Ellison and his accomplices pistol-whipping Lezama and another man at the apartment. Ellison then shot and killed Lezama and fled with his accomplices.

Officers with the Houston Police Department arrived to find Lezama dead and began interviewing the surviving witnesses. Surveillance video showed that Ellison had let the two other men into the secured midrise apartment building before the shooting.

Investigators later interviewed Ellison, who said he was at the apartment for drugs. He admitted he let the other two men into the building after telling Lezama that he was going to buy cigarillos at a nearby store.

Assistant District Attorneys Megan Long and Rebecca Marshall, who are both chiefs in the DA’s Homicide Division, prosecuted Ellison in a seven-day trial.

“This was an incredibly violent incident that included beating and pistol-whipping the victim before shooting him,” Long said. “And this defendant was the mastermind and a triggerman—he planned it all out.”

Marshall added that Ellison took advantage of the relationship that he had with Lezama to victimize him.

“Christian Lezama trusted Jourdan Ellison,” Marshall said. “And that led to Ellison organizing a brutal, violent robbery that led to Lezama’s execution.”

Long noted that because Ellison was 17 at the time of the murder, he will be eligible for parole after 40 years under Texas law.

However, both of Ellison’s accomplices, Deric Williams, 26, and Michael Sykes, 24, both face life in prison without parole because they were older than 17 at the time of the shooting.

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