Wichita Falls teen gets 50 years for murder

Trish Choate, Wichita Falls Times Record News
·2 min read

A Wichita Falls man pleaded guilty Friday to killing Zachary Ryan Wood in May at a Wichita Falls home and to assaulting another man in a different incident, according to court documents.

Ronnie Preston Lang Jr., 18, was sentenced for murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as part of a plea bargain Friday, according to court records.

Thirtieth District Judge Jeff McKnight handed down sentences of 50 years for Wood's May 21 slaying and 20 years for a May 16 assault, court records show. Both took place at the same Brown Street home. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Lang, who is one of four people charged in connection with Wood's beating death will receive 102 days of credit for jail time served, court documents show.

Ronnie Lang
Ronnie Lang

Lang was being held Friday in the Wichita County Law Enforcement Center, online jail records show.

Police say Wood was punched and hit with a baseball bat and handgun over missing money and drugs, according to allegations in court records.

In the May 16 incident, a man told police that Lang pointed a handgun at him and hit him in the head with it because he wanted a romantic relationship with Lang's girlfriend, Payton Collier, court documents show. The incident was caught on video.

A Wichita County grand jury declined to indict Lang on a felony theft of a firearm, and the charge was dismissed Aug. 18, court documents show.

More:Six indicted on murder charges

The other three people accused of murdering Wood at a home in the 2100 block of Brown Street are William Andrew Bell, Payton Mackenzie Collier and Ashley Marie Esselborn.

Police contend 28-year-old Bell, 27-year-old Collier and 21-year-old Esselborn, all of Wichita Falls, were implicated in Wood's beating death, according to allegations in court documents.

More:Arrest affidavit sheds new light on Wood's murder

Collier was being held Friday in the Law Enforcement Center on a $1 million bond for the murder charge, according to jail records. Esselborn was being held on a $100,000 bond for the murder charge Friday at the LEC, jail records show.

Bell was being held in the LEC Friday on a $200,000 bond for the murder charge and a $3,000 bond for a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge out of Archer County, online jail records show.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Wichita Falls man sentenced for murder of Zachary Wood