lit a candle 6h agoonly came across this story today, a year after it happened. 38 years old, just out there fixing a tyre on his car. My thoughts are with his mother, Darlene.
Their story
Dustin Ray Nobles was a 38 year old man from the Bruceville-Eddy area of McLennan County, Texas, who became known to the public only through the violent circumstances of his death and the criminal case that followed it. Little has been reported about his work, education or personal history beyond…
Dustin Ray Nobles was a 38 year old man from the Bruceville-Eddy area of McLennan County, Texas, who became known to the public only through the violent circumstances of his death and the criminal case that followed it. Little has been reported about his work, education or personal history beyond what emerged in police records and courtroom testimony, and this page will be updated as more verified details become available.
On January 5, 2025, Nobles was shot and killed outside a home in the 1300 block of Old Moody Road in Bruceville-Eddy while he was changing a tire on his car. His vehicle had broken down in front of a home where 18 year old Brandon Michael Davis lived with his grandfather. According to arrest records, Davis had his grandfather tell Nobles he had only a short time to leave, and a witness said Nobles responded by telling Davis to come at him. Davis went inside, returned with a rifle, and fired a single shot that struck Nobles in the chest. Witnesses testified that after the shooting Davis told Nobles to make sure he died slow. Nobles was pronounced dead a short time after police arrived.
Davis was arrested at the scene and booked on a first degree murder charge, and a McLennan County grand jury formally indicted him in March 2025 in the killing of Nobles, who was also known to friends and family as Dusty. The case took nearly two years to reach trial. When it finally opened in Waco's 54th State District Court on November 2, 2026, Davis' attorney told jurors his client had acted in self defense, and the prosecution called Nobles' mother, Darlene Nobles, as its first witness. Davis testified that he and Nobles had clashed before because of how Nobles treated Davis' aunt, who was Nobles' girlfriend.
On November 3, 2026, jurors deliberated for about fifteen minutes before convicting Davis of murder and rejecting the self defense claims made by Davis and his grandfather. The punishment phase of the trial opened the next day, and Davis, who had faced a range of five to ninety nine years or life in prison, was ultimately sentenced to life in prison for killing Nobles, almost two years after the shooting.
For the people who knew him away from the headlines, Nobles was remembered simply as Dusty, the name used in several of the earliest news reports about his death. The case drew sustained attention from local news outlets in the Waco area as it moved from arrest to indictment to trial, and the conviction and sentencing brought a measure of legal resolution to a killing that began with nothing more than a broken down car in a driveway.
Biography adapted from News reports and the sources cited on this page; death reported by KWTX.
Photos
1by People Forever
same, saw it when the trial finished. awful.