WCSO says 3 arrested after shooting, discovery of plot to kill county judge

LIBERTY HILL, Texas (KXAN) — Three people were arrested after they were accused of breaking into a Liberty Hill home in March and shooting two people, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday.

The three people arrested are 38-year-old Clinton Harmon, his mother, Teresa Harmon, and adopted father, Matthew Harmon. Williamson County Sheriff Mike Gleason said they are also believed to be connected with a plot to kill a Williamson County judge.

The shooting happened March 8 in Liberty Hill, investigators said.

Around 2:30 a.m., 911 dispatch in Williamson County received a call from a teenager who said his mother and boyfriend were shot “by an unknown intruder” who forced entry into their home in Liberty Hill when they were sleeping, the release from WCSO said.

The video above is a media briefing held by WCSO that provided more details into the three people arrested

The mother was shot 11 times, and the boyfriend was shot twice, according to WCSO. Both victims survived and recovered from their injuries.

“No items were stolen, and it was immediately apparent that this was not a random act of violence,” WCSO said in the release.

A joint investigation was launched between law enforcement agencies, including the Liberty Hill Police Department, WCSO Criminal Investigations Division and the FBI, which led to the three arrests.

Gleason said the investigation revealed the female victim and Harmon were in the midst of a child custody dispute in Williamson County over their 7-year-old child.

In July, detectives received a call from Harmon’s ex-girlfriend in Louisiana, according to Gleason.

“She expressed concern that Harmon and his family may have been involved in the shooting and requested a family meeting in Bastrop where Harmon, his mother and his adopted father discussed ways to murder the victim as well as the judge presiding over the custody case,” said Gleason.

Gleason said Matt Harmon said he would do “10 to 20 [years in prison] to get his grandbaby back.” The trio also reportedly discussed “buying fentanyl to drug the victim and wanted to hire ‘thugs’ from Austin to carry out the crime.”

According to WCSO, based on the information revealed, detectives believed the three suspects had been planning the murder before the events of March 8. WCSO then put safety measures in place to protect the judge involved in the case.

Further on in the investigation, Gleason said detectives received evidence from the previous owner of Harmon’s vehicle that showed a tracking device had been on the vehicle at the time of the events, and after that, placed Harmon at the scene of the crime. The vehicle was 0.4 miles from the crime scene, according to Gleason.

The tracker had been placed on the car by Harmon’s loan lender when he bought it, but he didn’t realize it, Gleason said.

Detectives also received evidence from Harmon’s ex-girlfriend’s cell phone, according to Gleason.

Harmon has been charged with attempted capital murder, a first-degree felony, with a bond set at $2 million, according to Gleason. His mother and adopted father were charged with the offense of retaliation, a third-degree felony, for the threats made about the judge, according to Gleason.

“We get a lot of threats in this line of work, but to start planning out how to kill a judge, how to get narcotics to kill them, they were planning step by step,” said Gleason.

Gleason said the courts were working to implement new safety measures at the courthouse, saying, “we have decreased a lot of access to our facility.”

‘It’s just been unnerving’

KXAN spoke with a neighbor who asked to hide their identity out of fear of the situation.

“Do we feel secure here? Nope,” the neighbor said. “It’s just been unnerving the whole time.”

They told us the March 8 shooting happened in a unit at their apartment complex. They said one of their neighbors even found bullet holes in their wall.

“He was directly behind their apartment,” the neighbor said.

The neighbor said they hope to get more answers.

“Who it was? I mean, why they were here in our complex?” the neighbor asked. “Was it truly a random thing or a targeted thing?”

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