A 39-year-old San Antonio man has been sentenced to spend the remainder of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole following his capital murder conviction for brutally stomping his cellmate to death inside the Bexar County jail five years ago.
Shandrick Van Anthony Buckley received the mandatory life sentence from state District Judge Benjamin Robertson on Tuesday evening after jurors in the 226th Judicial District Court deliberated for nearly five hours. Deliberations began shortly before 4 p.m., and as the evening progressed past 6 p.m., Judge Robertson instructed deputies to make initial arrangements to sequester the panel for the night. However, shortly before 9 p.m., the jury returned to the courtroom with a guilty verdict. Because prosecutors with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office declined to seek the death penalty, Robertson immediately handed down the automatic sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
The fatal attack occurred on May 30, 2019, when Buckley was paired inside cell C23 with 29-year-old Alexander Wise. At the time, Buckley was in custody awaiting trial on a separate murder charge related to the alleged 2017 stomping death of a man behind the Haven for Hope facility. Wise was being held at the jail on charges involving credit card fraud and narcotics.
The deadly incident came to light during routine rounds conducted by Bexar County detention officers. Staff members observed a pool of blood seeping out from beneath the door of cell C23. Upon entering the space, guards discovered Wise lying unresponsive in a pool of blood near the cell doorway. Witnesses described blood spattered across the walls as high as waist level. Wise succumbed to his severe injuries at the facility.
During the trial, medical testimony provided a detailed account of the catastrophic damage inflicted during the assault. Howard Huber, a physician assistant who attempted emergency life-saving measures on Wise, testified that the victim sustained a severe Le Fort fracture. Huber explained that this trauma involves a midfacial fracture separating the upper jaw and facial structure from the base of the skull, resulting in what is medically described as a "floating face." A medical examiner with Bexar County subsequently concluded that Wise died from blunt force injuries to the head and neck.
Bexar County Assistant District Attorneys Raul Jordan and Cassandra Rosales presented evidence arguing that Buckley ambushed Wise, beating and stomping him into an unrecognizable state. Although prosecutors did not identify a specific motive for the killing, they directed the jury’s attention to body-camera video captured by responding detention officers and photographic evidence documenting the severe injuries Wise sustained.
Highlighting the physical evidence, Jordan showed diagrams from the medical examiner's office confirming that Buckley exhibited no visible injuries or defensive marks following the encounter. Prosecutors argued that while Buckley was entirely uninjured, his clothing, footwear, and legs were heavily stained with the victim's blood, supporting the state's narrative that Buckley knocked Wise down and stomped him to death.
The state also relied on statements Buckley gave to investigators following the killing. In an interview with detectives, Buckley admitted to repeatedly punching and stomping Wise. When investigators asked him to describe how he used his feet during the attack, Buckley explained that he applied downward force in a manner similar to someone putting out a fire.
Defense attorneys Cleophus Marshall and Cornelius Cox argued that the prosecution failed to prove Buckley’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, emphasizing that only two individuals were inside the cell when the violence occurred. The defense maintained that it was impossible to determine definitively how the fight started and raised the possibility that Buckley acted in lawful self-defense.
Marshall pointed to the racial and ideological differences between the two men, questioning why jail staff placed them in the same cell. Wise was identified by authorities as a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang, while Buckley is Black. The defense challenged jurors to consider what Buckley saw and reasonably believed he had to do when paired with a member of a neo-Nazi organization.
The defense also presented evidence regarding prior violence involving both men within the facility. Marshall noted that Wise had engaged in a physical altercation with another inmate shortly before being transferred into Buckley’s cell. He also told jurors that Buckley had been involved in 23 fights during his incarceration and likely anticipated a violent confrontation.
Additionally, Marshall drew attention to crime scene photographs indicating that Wise’s bunk lacked a mattress. The defense used that detail to suggest that Wise had been placed in the cell as part of an illicit inmate "fight club" operating within the facility.
In raising the "fight club" assertion, Marshall referenced trial testimony from a former Bexar County detective, who the defense argued admitted that inmates were permitted to fight one another inside the detention center. Marshall argued that this context was vital for the jury to evaluate the environment leading up to the killing.
Throughout the proceedings, Buckley’s legal team emphasized that his mental competency had fluctuated repeatedly since the 2019 incident. Although Buckley entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity at the start of the trial, the judge instructed jurors that they were legally barred from considering an insanity defense during their deliberations.
Following the guilty verdict and the pronouncement of the sentence, Buckley was formally remanded to serve his life term without parole in the state prison system, bringing the capital murder proceedings in Wise's death to a close.
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