The ruling sends Christantus Omondi to a state hospital after the 2024 killing of delivery driver Scotty Jackson.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Tarrant County judge has found Christantus Omondi not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2024 killing of delivery driver Scotty Jackson, ending the criminal case with a ruling that Omondi was legally insane when the fatal attack happened.
The decision closes one chapter in a case that drew attention for its violence and for the questions it raised about mental illness and public safety. Prosecutors and defense lawyers both accepted a mental health evaluation that said Omondi could not tell right from wrong at the time of the attack. Instead of prison, he is expected to be sent to a state hospital for treatment and supervision.
Jackson, 51, was delivering firewood to a home in Fort Worth in January 2024 when the attack began, according to police records described in earlier reporting. The homeowner had come outside to help unload the wood from Jackson’s vehicle. That is when a naked man, later identified as Omondi, approached them and began shouting. The homeowner later recalled that Omondi was inches from his face and holding up a key while demanding that the men leave. Jackson answered that they were on the homeowner’s property and were only trying to unload the firewood because of the cold, the homeowner said. Police records say Omondi then pushed the homeowner and repeatedly struck Jackson with a piece of firewood.
The homeowner ran inside and survived. Jackson did not. Officers later found him dead in the yard with severe blunt force injuries to the head and neck, according to the earlier case account. Police said witness statements and video surveillance backed up the homeowner’s description of what happened. Investigators also said Omondi went back to an Airbnb on the same street after the killing and tried to attack a female tenant there before officers arrived. When police confronted him, records say he was still naked, aggressive and did not follow commands. Officers used a Taser before taking him into custody. At the time, he was booked on a murder charge. What has not been laid out in public detail is the full mental health history behind the court evaluation.
The ruling this week changed the legal path of the case. A finding of not guilty by reason of insanity does not mean the court concluded that the killing did not happen. It means the judge accepted the finding that Omondi was legally insane during the attack and therefore could not be held criminally responsible in the usual way. FOX 4 reported that both sides agreed to the outcome after reviewing the evaluation. Legal analyst Russell Wilson, who was not part of the case, said the standard turns on whether a person understood the difference between right and wrong, not simply whether the act was violent or erratic. That distinction often makes insanity cases rare and emotionally difficult, especially for victims’ relatives.
Jackson’s family said the ruling brought anger and fear along with grief. His daughter, Kasey DeLeon, told FOX 4 that the outcome did not feel fair because her father was still dead regardless of Omondi’s mental state. She said she worries about the possibility of future release, even while hearing that a state hospital can be more restrictive than many people assume. Her comments captured the tension that often follows insanity verdicts: one system responds to mental illness, while another family continues to live with a permanent loss. Jackson had been working, making a delivery during freezing weather, when the attack interrupted an ordinary job and turned it into a homicide case that lasted more than two years.
The scene described in court records and witness accounts has remained central to the case from the start. Firewood was scattered in the yard. The homeowner said the confrontation unfolded in seconds and became deadly before anyone could stop it. Neighbors had earlier told reporters that Omondi had been staying at the nearby Airbnb only a short time before the attack. The unusual and brutal details made the case memorable, but the court’s final ruling rested on a narrower legal question about Omondi’s state of mind at that moment, not on whether the attack was shocking or severe.
The case now moves out of the normal criminal track and into the state mental health system. Omondi is expected to be transferred to a state hospital, where doctors and officials will determine the next steps in his treatment and confinement. Any future review of his status would happen through legal and mental health procedures rather than a murder trial.
Author note: Last updated April 23, 2026.