Man gets life in prison after pleading guilty in the sexual assaults of 4 women in their Texas homes
McKINNEY, Texas — A man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the attacks on four women who were sexually assaulted in their Dallas-area homes, including three women who were alumnae of the same national black sorority.
Jeffery Lemor Wheat, 52, entered the pleas in Collin County District Court on Tuesday. With the help of video conferencing, he was convicted by judges in four different provinces, television channel WFAA reports.
The attacks occurred in Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties. He received two life sentences for burglary of a dwelling with intent to commit another crime, with one of those charges coming from Tarrant County and the other from Collin County. He also received 30 years in prison on the aggravated sexual assault charge out of Dallas County and 20 years on the sexual assault charge out of Denton County, according to prosecutors and court records.
Wheat’s sentences will run concurrently, WFAA reported. Wheat’s lawyer, Greg Ashford, told the TV station: βHe at least has a chance of parole after 15 years, minus the three years he has already spent in prison. So we felt this was the best outcome of these cases for him.β
Wheat was arrested in 2021 after investigators used DNA and genealogical testing to identify him as a person of interest in the assaults, one that occurred in 2003 and three others that occurred in 2011.
Limitations in technology led to the case being shelved in 2003. But years later, DNA testing linked it to the three 2011 cases, Tarrant County prosecutors said. Prosecutors in Collin County said investigators then spent two years working with genetic genealogy labs and conducting genealogical research to identify a person of interest.
All of the victims in the 2011 cases were members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, prosecutors said. Collin County prosecutors said investigators in Plano determined Wheat had access to personal information about them while working for a credit card processing company the fraternity had used.