Tommy Witherspoon
KWTX Managing Editor
Waco, Texas
Tommy Witherspoon is a longtime newspaper journalist who began his career at the Corsicana Daily Sun in 1980.
He worked 39 years at the Waco Tribune-Herald before joining the staff at KWTX as managing editor in March 2022.
Tommy is a native of Weatherford, Texas, and graduated from the University of North Texas with a journalism degree.
He has three sons.
A Waco man remains jailed Monday after police say he stabbed his brother in the hand with a barbecue fork during an altercation Friday at a home in the 900 block of Faulkner Lane.
Mario Rocha Jr., 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Waco’s 414th State District Court, and Judge Ryan Luna sentenced him to 18 year in prison.
Anissa Cantrell Bell, 45, was released from the McLennan County Jail on personal recognizance bonds totaling $100,000.
A McLennan County jury sentenced former Central Texas Catholic priest Anthony Odiong to a maximum life prison term.
A former Baylor University employee whose children caught her having sex with Odiong told jurors about how she became entangled with the Nigerian priest.
Baylor's retired university chaplain testified Anthony Odiong responded “We are but men” when confronted about allegations two children caught him having sex with their mother.
A former employee of an agricultural and turf utility vehicle company pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $76,000 from the company.
Former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman was released early from jail for good behavior.
A Waco couple is suing the Walk-On’s restaurant franchise, alleging the woman spent 12 days in a coma after eating spoiled tuna at the former Waco location in October 2024.
A former employee of a Waco agricultural and turf utility vehicle company pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling more than $76,000 from the company.
Advocates for Hoffman’s victim and his mother expressed their outrage over Hoffman’s plea deal during a news conference at the McLennan County Courthouse. Texas AG prosecutors say the plea deal in the Adam Hoffman child sexual abuse case was driven by the child victim’s decision not to testify again after a first trial ended in a hung jury
Hoffman pleaded guilty April 16 to indecent assault and displaying harmful materials to a minor, both Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail.
A dozen families in Texas filed a lawsuit against a charter school after nearly 20 students suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in February.
A dozen families have filed a lawsuit against a San Angelo charter school after the mass hospitalization of student athletes who reportedly suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in February during what the lawsuit alleges was a “brutal and predatory physical punishment regimen.”
A former high school teacher pleaded guilty to having an improper sexual relationship with two teenage boys.
A Georgetown man pleaded guilty Friday to firing a pistol during an altercation that left a Dallas medical researcher dead in a downtown Waco parking lot in 2024.
Kenneth Austin Galvez, 46, is on trial in Waco’s 474th State District Court on a continuous sexual assault of a young child charge and four counts of indecency with a child by contact.
Kenneth Galvez, 46, is on trial in Waco’s 474th State District Court on a continuous sexual assault of a young child charge and four counts of indecency with a child by contact.
A 79-year-old Moody man was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting a teenage family friend beginning when the girl was 16.
A Temple man who shot and killed a Dallas medical researcher in a downtown Waco parking lot in February 2024 was sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday.
A Waco man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Monday in the 2024 shooting death of a man whose body he later dumped in the Brazos River.
A Lacy Lakeview woman who said God has forgiven her for isolating her stepdaughter in a barren room and restraining her with chains was convicted Thursday on three felony counts.
TWIN PEAKS UPDATE: A federal judge has recommended dismissing the civil lawsuit against the former McLennan County DA, tied to the 2015 Waco biker shooting that left 9 dead
David Weaver’s life has been shrouded in mystery since his mother’s nude body was found floating face-down in an East Texas pond in 1967 and his younger brother disappeared without a trace in 1983.
A nurse in Texas may have exposed numerous inmates to HIV after allegedly contaminating medication.
The McLennan County jail nurse who may have exposed about a dozen inmates to the virus that causes AIDS has been fired.
Jurors in Waco’s 19th State District Court deliberated just 10 minutes before recommending that Judge Thomas West sentence Ricky Marlin Pruett to the maximum sentence.
Three McLennan County Sheriff’s Office jail employees remain free on bond after they were named in sealed indictments on use of excessive force and records tampering allegations investigated by the Texas Rangers.
Utah man who met Waco teen online, had sex with her at Cameron Park, pleads guilty to sexual assault
A Utah man who met a 15-year-old Waco girl online and had sex with her in Cameron Park pleaded guilty to three felony counts Thursday.
A federal court jury in Waco has awarded $7.5 million to a group of parents after they protested the planned cancellation of the 2023 Marlin High School graduation.
Eric Miguel Zapata and his alleged sexual assault victim told wildly varying accounts Tuesday of their October 2023 chance encounter that led to Zapata’s arrest.
Charles D. Stanley, 56, pleaded guilty to three third-degree felony counts of attack by dog and a misdemeanor count of interference with emergency request for assistance.
Santiago Bustamante must serve half of his sentence before he can seek parole. After his release, he faces deportation to Mexico.
Cynthia Ellen Ming, 54, who initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the capital murder charge, changed her plea to guilty to the lesser charge of murder.
A Bellmead woman who was living with her father’s decomposing body in a filthy mobile home was found mentally incompetent to stand trial Thursday.
A Waco man remains jailed after Lacy Lakeview police say he left a 1-month-old baby unattended on the front porch of the child’s mother’s home on Nov. 28.
A Lacy Lakeview woman charged with breaking into her neighbor’s home in 2022, shooting her in the head and claiming she “drank her blood” will employ an insanity defense during her capital murder trial next week.
Akylon Kyle Benson, 26, who formerly identified himself on social media as “executive director” of a local group that purports to catch alleged child sex predators, pleaded guilty to exploitation of an elderly person.
A former China Spring girl testified Tuesday that Thomas Arthur Stewart sexually assaulted her while they were sharing a bed at her family’s home.
Jose Antonio Luevanos, husband of Elisabeth Avila Luevanos, is seeking more than $1 million in damages in his suit.
Heath Lee Mynar, 54, of Waco, a 20-year member of the Waco Police Department, remains jailed under $250,000 bond.
Gas leak delays trial of Waco woman accused of crashing into cars at school pick-up line while drunk
Jury selection in Whitney Ashton Hayes’ DWI trial had begun Monday morning in McLennan County Court-at-Law No. 2 when a contractor working on the renovation of the old downtown county jail struck a gas line.
Texas judges who decline to perform gay marriages based on their religious beliefs won’t be subject to sanctions governing judicial impartiality.
A parolee who served 35 years in prison after a 1985 murder conviction is back in the McLennan County Jail following.
A convicted sex offender arrested in September in the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl and two young female family members was indicted Thursday.
A Winters, Texas, man and former candidate for Runnels County commissioner was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday in the sexual abuse of a young family member in Woodway.
A Houston-area man who shot a man in the face while also threatening the mother of his child in April 2023 pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of aggravated assault.
A Waco teen who authorities allege is a local gang member was charged with murder in the May 21 shooting death of a man during a reported drug deal.
Ernest Henry Swinner, 50, who was living with the girl’s family in Lacy Lakeview at the time of the assaults, pleaded guilty.
A former Waco man charged with capital murder in a 2010 sealed indictment is in the McLennan County Jail after his extradition from Mexico.
