Man gets life in prison after pleading guilty in the sexual assaults of 4 women in their Texas homes

McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty in the attacks of four women who were sexually assaulted in their homes throughout the Dallas area, including three women who were alumnae of the same national Black sorority.

Jeffery Lemor Wheat, 52, entered the pleas Tuesday in district court in Collin County. With the help of video conferencing, he was sentenced by judges in four different counties, television station WFAA reported.

The assaults occurred in Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties. He received two life sentences for burglary of a habitation with intent of another felony, with one of those charges coming from Tarrant County and the other from Collin County. He also received 30 years in prison for an aggravated sexual assault charge out of Dallas County and 20 years for a sexual assault charge out of Denton County, according to prosecutors' offices and court records.

Wheat’s sentences will run at the same time, WFAA reported. Wheat’s attorney, Greg Ashford, told the TV station: “He at least has a chance of parole after 15 years, minus the three years that he has already been incarcerated. So, we felt that was the best outcome of these cases for him.”

Wheat was arrested in 2021 after investigators used DNA and genealogy research to identify him as a person of interest in the sexual assaults, one which occurred in 2003 and three others that occurred in 2011.

Limitations in technology in 2003 led to that case being suspended. But years later, DNA testing linked it to the three cases from 2011, prosecutors in Tarrant County said. Prosecutors in Collin County said that investigators then spent two years working with genetic genealogy labs and conducting genealogical research to identify a person of interest.

All of the victims in the 2011 cases were members of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, prosecutors said. Collin County prosecutors said investigators in Plano determined that Wheat had access to personal information about them when he worked for a credit card processing company the sorority had used.