Tommy Witherspoon
KWTX Managing Editor
Waco, Texas
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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.
Updated: Jan. 30, 2023 at 6:15 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Those procrastinating taxpayers who have waited until the last minute to pay property taxes won’t be able to blame the bad weather if they are assessed a late penalty.
Updated: Jan. 26, 2023 at 5:34 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Thelette Brandon set for parole review in June 2023.
Updated: Jan. 12, 2023 at 12:47 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A Waco teen who authorities say was part of a violent crime spree in late 2021 was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday.
Updated: Jan. 11, 2023 at 4:28 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Sheriff McNamara said the incident was captured on patrol vehicle dash cameras and clearly shows the officers ordering the woman to drop the loaded weapon.
Updated: Jan. 10, 2023 at 5:59 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The lawsuit alleged the officer's rights to free speech, due process and equal protection under the law were violated.
Updated: Jan. 5, 2023 at 6:15 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Investigators launched an investigation after receiving a referral from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Updated: Jan. 3, 2023 at 5:08 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The former owner of a Waco day care is asking a judge to move her retrial in the 2013 death of a child in her care to another county.
Updated: Dec. 21, 2022 at 3:32 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. found Central Texas vineyard owner Christopher Grider guilty Wednesday on all nine counts he was charged with in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Updated: Dec. 19, 2022 at 4:09 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A former Baylor University student charged with sexually assaulting another student at a party in 2018 pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced misdemeanor charge.
Updated: Dec. 14, 2022 at 5:10 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Sam Ukwuachu will spend this Christmas in the McLennan County Jail as a condition of probation for his 2015 conviction for sexually assaulting a former student.
Updated: Dec. 12, 2022 at 4:58 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The bodies of the dogs were allegedly laid out in victim's workplace parking lot.
Updated: Dec. 12, 2022 at 4:45 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A former Waco man who sexually abused a 15-year-old family member in 2014 pleaded guilty Monday to multiple felony counts.
Updated: Dec. 11, 2022 at 3:48 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The local business owner will fight the remaining charges in court.
Updated: Dec. 9, 2022 at 11:50 AM CST
|By Joe Villasana and Tommy Witherspoon
Police arrested an alleged human trafficker after police received information about suspicious activity in a south Waco neighborhood.
Updated: Dec. 7, 2022 at 4:45 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A former China Spring High School coach arrested last year in a McLennan County Sheriff’s Office sex sting was placed on misdemeanor probation Wednesday after his guilty plea to a reduced charge.
Updated: Dec. 7, 2022 at 4:02 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A man found not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of his nephew was ordered returned to a secure mental facility.
Updated: Dec. 2, 2022 at 4:40 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Before moving to Central Texas, Carla Sigler and her husband were found to have improperly taken a total of $700,000 in reported loans from an 89-year-old woman in Alaska.
Updated: Nov. 29, 2022 at 6:23 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A former Mexia State School employee charged with punching a disabled school resident and breaking his nose was found not guilty Tuesday.
Updated: Nov. 28, 2022 at 9:42 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The former police chief of the defunct Lott Police Department has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Lott.
Updated: Nov. 28, 2022 at 3:43 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon and Chantel Ropp
A Waco man who shot and killed his girlfriend in 2020 in what police described as a fatal escalation of domestic violence was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Updated: Nov. 18, 2022 at 3:23 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A former security guard from Hewitt who had thousands of images of child pornography on his home computer pleaded guilty.
Updated: Nov. 17, 2022 at 4:14 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A Waco teen who authorities say unleashed a crime spree last year that included burglary, kidnapping, carjacking, robbery and assault was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday.
Updated: Nov. 15, 2022 at 3:04 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A former McLennan County woman who killed her husband 27 years ago because she thought he was an “espionage spy” and possessed by a cult member’s body will remain in a mental hospital.
Updated: Nov. 14, 2022 at 5:21 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal by the city of Waco and McLennan County in lawsuits filed by bikers arrested in the 2015 Twin Peaks shootout.
Updated: Nov. 10, 2022 at 5:00 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Leonard David Newman, 32, was indicted by a McLennan County grand jury on multiple first- and second-degree felony counts that could put him in prison for the rest of his life.
Updated: Nov. 10, 2022 at 3:28 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
An Arlington man who posted a video of a woman performing a sex act on him on a social media site pleaded guilty Wednesday to a state jail felony charge.
Updated: Nov. 9, 2022 at 4:43 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A Waco man was jailed Tuesday on allegations he sexually assaulted a girl who was younger than 14.
Updated: Nov. 8, 2022 at 1:30 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The suspect has been jailed 618 days. At $80 a day, his incarceration cost McLennan County taxpayers $49,440.
Updated: Nov. 7, 2022 at 4:29 PM CST
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A Robinson man who works part time as a Little League umpire was about to be released from jail on bond last week before McLennan County sheriff’s deputies filed more serious charges the next day alleging continuous sexual abuse of child.
Updated: Nov. 5, 2022 at 3:08 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon and Jordan Gartner
A robbery victim in Texas was able to contact authorities by activating his OnStar device.
Updated: Nov. 4, 2022 at 5:30 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Deputies also are searching for a woman they allege lured the victim to the home where he was shot and robbed.
Updated: Nov. 4, 2022 at 4:59 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A three-judge panel reinstated - at least temporarily – the lawsuits of about 90 bikers whose civil rights cases were dismissed last year by U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of Waco.
Updated: Nov. 2, 2022 at 5:04 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A 79-year-old China Spring man was arrested Tuesday in McLennan County.
Updated: Nov. 2, 2022 at 4:07 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The former police chief of Rosebud was placed on felony deferred probation Wednesday for having improper sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy.
Updated: Oct. 31, 2022 at 6:48 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The murder trial of Kevin Darnell Wash was postponed Monday after prosecutors disqualified the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office from the case.
Updated: Oct. 28, 2022 at 4:07 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A deadlocked jury in favor of the defendant in a labor trafficking and sexual assault case caused a mistrial early Friday morning that led to a plea agreement in the case.
Updated: Oct. 27, 2022 at 6:35 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Two men were indicted Thursday in separate alleged drunken driving accidents that left three people dead and another man injured.
Updated: Oct. 27, 2022 at 6:09 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A Lacy Lakeview woman who police say was naked and covered in blood after breaking into her neighbor’s home, wrestling a gun away from her and shooting her in the head was indicted Thursday.
Updated: Oct. 24, 2022 at 6:21 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A Central Texas man is on trial for capital murder in the May 2020 killings of his in-laws.
Updated: Oct. 23, 2022 at 5:24 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Testimony is set to begin in the trial of Johnny Alvin Wilson, who is charged with killing his mother-in-law and father-in-law during a family cookout in May 2020.
Updated: Oct. 20, 2022 at 3:31 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The Central Texas man was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Updated: Oct. 19, 2022 at 6:28 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The jury of seven women and five men reported they were hopelessly deadlocked after four hours deliberating.
Updated: Oct. 17, 2022 at 5:01 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A Bruceville construction worker remains in the McLennan County after his arrest Saturday on charges he sexually abused two 9-year-old girls over a 13-month period.
Updated: Oct. 14, 2022 at 4:53 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Nicolas Jaimes-Hernandez’s 8-year-old son witnessed his father shoot and kill Monica Delgado Aviles and her two teenage children on Sept. 28.
Updated: Oct. 13, 2022 at 11:46 AM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A woman who authorities say helped orchestrate a drive-by shooting that claimed the life of a Waco man in November 2020 was jailed Wednesday on a murder charge.
Updated: Oct. 12, 2022 at 12:24 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A 60-year-old New Braunfels man who shared pornographic images online with a deputy posing as a 16-year-old girl was placed on felony deferred probation Wednesday.
Updated: Oct. 9, 2022 at 5:23 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in Waco’s 54th State District Court in the capital murder trial of 39-year-old Johnny Alvin Wilson.
Updated: Oct. 5, 2022 at 4:54 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
A construction worker who impregnated his former girlfriend’s daughter after sexually abusing her for five years was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday.
Updated: Oct. 4, 2022 at 5:46 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
The accuser, who didn’t report her mother’s former boyfriend had been sexually abusing her, testified that she didn’t know she was pregnant with his child.
Updated: Sep. 30, 2022 at 4:31 PM CDT
|By Tommy Witherspoon
Vera Jean Burleson was found beaten and stabbed to death at her Bellmead home in June 1984.
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