Yarbrough Sentenced to 3-Years in Prison for Criminally Negligent Homicide

After 49-year old Deborah Yarbrough was found guilty of negligent homicide on Thursday, the same jury deliberated Friday and sentenced her to 3 years in prison. Criminally negligent homicide is usually a state jail felony, punishable by a maximum of 2 years in prison, but prosecutors in this case were able to successfully argue that the gun used in the killing of 53-year old Fredrick Dwulet was a deadly weapon, and that pushed the crime into the 3rd degree felony punishment range, which is 2 to 10 years in prison. Now, Yarbrough will spend the next 3 years in prison for the January 2008 shooting death of Dwulet at the home they shared in the Comal Farms subdivision. Prosecutors say that this case essentially wraps up the jury trials for the year at the Comal County Courthouse. But when 2010 begins, a 1st degree felony murder trial is scheduled to begin at the end of January. We’ll have more details on that as the New Year begins.

In other courthouse news: The Comal County Grand Jury has met for the month of December, and issued indictments against 27 individuals accused of a total of 30 crimes in Comal County. That’s actually down from 31 individuals indicted in November on a total of 38 crimes. In this month’s round of inquiries, Comal County prosecutors were able to secure indictments for a range of crimes, from DWI, to failure to comply with sex offender registration, to burglary of a building charges. There were also 7 individuals that were issued drug possession charges. Most notable on the list of indictments, though, were several 1st degree felony charges, including 2 counts of aggravated sexual assault charges against 21-year old Timothy Burrow stemming from 2 incidents that happened in June of 2008. He was originally arrested in January of this year, and was released in March after posting a 250-thousand dollar bond. Also facing aggravated sexual assault charges, but this time against a child, is Avery Darnell. And 40-year old Ron J. Wilson has been indicted on 2 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges, each considered a 2nd degree felony. He was arrested by New Braunfels Police this past October 13th, and remains in the Comal County Jail under 150-thousand dollars in bonds. Those cases are all a couple of months away from actual trials, with formal charges just now being filed. But we’ll continue to follow the latest activity out of the Comal County Courthouse here on KGNB, and online at kgnb.am.