Local gang member placed on probation in beating of Waco couple outside taco stand

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - One of four alleged gang members charged in the brutal beating of a Waco couple outside a Waco food truck in October 2023 was placed on deferred probation Tuesday.

Tyrell Deontae Reese, 30, pleaded guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity, a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison. Reese’s guilty plea came in exchange for a recommendation from the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office that he be placed on deferred probation for 10 years.

Visiting Judge Roy Sparkman accepted the plea agreement.

The indictment against Reese alleges he committed aggravated assault as a member of a criminal street gang.

Reese was arrested in the incident with alleged fellow gang members Lademeon Dashaun Davis, 23, Tyson Hawthorne, 23, and Jayden Jackson, 21. Davis pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June, while the charges remain pending against Hawthorne and Jackson, according to court records.

The men were charged with attacking a couple who had stopped to get tacos at a food truck in the parking lot of Club BLAAM, 641 Ruby Ave.

According to arrest records, the man and woman told police they were standing in line to get food when a fight involving multiple people broke out. The couple said they knew none of the combatants involved in the altercation.

They reported that some in the fight suddenly started pointing and yelling at them. The couple tried to back away, but the mob of individuals swarmed them and attacked them for no apparent reason, police wrote in the affidavit.

Some of the attackers struck and knocked the female victim to the ground. Another six to seven men then attacked the man by punching and kicking him while he was on the ground, the affidavit alleges.

The woman suffered a bruise to her face, while the man sustained a fractured wrist, a laceration to the back of his head, trauma to both orbital sockets and fractures to his jaw that required reconstructive surgery, according to the arrest complaints.

Investigators used cell phone video recordings and screenshots from social media accounts to help identify the suspects, police reported.