Prosecutors said an old motorcycle-group rivalry helped explain why a personal dispute ended with a father and son shot dead at an intersection.
WACO, Texas — Long before jurors heard about the gunfire that killed Michael David Morris and his teenage son, they were told about a fracture inside Central Texas motorcycle circles that prosecutors said helped turn a personal feud into a deadly roadside confrontation.
That history became the backdrop to the capital murder case against Romi Frentescu, a former secretary of the Ugly Man Cossacks motorcycle group. A McLennan County jury convicted the 33-year-old Aug. 12 of killing Morris, 38, and Morris’ 18-year-old son, Braxton Johnson, during an October 2024 encounter near Bruceville-Eddy. Frentescu maintained that he shot in self-defense after Morris produced a knife and Johnson struck him. Prosecutors argued instead that Frentescu intentionally drew Morris away from his home and created the confrontation. Jurors deliberated about an hour before convicting him. Because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, Frentescu was automatically sentenced to life without parole.
Morris was associated with the Cossacks 1%ers, a splinter faction that separated from the Ugly Man Cossacks. A Department of Public Safety gang expert testified that the break produced deep hostility. The expert traced the dispute in part to the period after the 2015 Twin Peaks biker shootout in Waco and described the rival organizations as criminal street gangs. He testified that conduct that might seem minor outside motorcycle-club culture — including revving an engine outside another member’s home — could be interpreted as a deliberate act of disrespect. He also described a reported order encouraging hostile action toward members of the splinter group.
The group history mattered because both sides agreed Frentescu and Morris had bad blood. They disagreed sharply over what that meant on the day of the killings. The defense said Morris had repeatedly threatened and harassed Frentescu before the shooting. Attorney Russ Hunt Jr. told jurors that Morris had threatened to burn Frentescu’s home and kill his dog. Frentescu later took the witness stand and gave a similar account, saying he had repeatedly tried to avoid escalation. On the day of the shooting, he said, Morris passed his home, revved an engine and made an obscene gesture. The defense portrayed that incident as the latest provocation from a man Frentescu already had reason to fear.
Frentescu did not stay home. He acknowledged riding toward Morris’ residence, revving his own motorcycle and then continuing to the intersection of Mackey Ranch Road and Old Moody Road. Morris followed on a motorcycle. Johnson and family friend Brian Pugh followed in Morris’ pickup, which was towing a trailer. Prosecutors focused heavily on that sequence. They argued that a man who truly wanted to avoid a dangerous adversary had other options, including contacting law enforcement. Instead, Frentescu took actions that brought the two men to an isolated intersection. The defense answered that Frentescu simply wanted to confront Morris verbally and put an end to ongoing harassment.
Pugh’s testimony gave jurors the prosecution’s account of what happened once everyone arrived. He said Morris and Frentescu squared up as if preparing for a fistfight. Johnson then got out of the pickup and ran toward his father. Pugh testified that Morris turned toward Johnson and held up a hand, apparently signaling for him to stop. Frentescu then stepped back, pulled a handgun and fired several times, Pugh said. He testified that he saw no knife in Morris’ hand. After Morris and Johnson were shot, Pugh said, Frentescu aimed the weapon toward him as well. Pugh sought cover and then tried to drive away, running over Frentescu’s motorcycle while maneuvering the truck.
Frentescu gave a competing account. He said Morris was screaming and aggressive and that the two exchanged blows. Frentescu testified that Morris pulled a switchblade during the fight. Johnson then hit Frentescu in the head, he said, sending him to the pavement and leaving him weak in the legs. According to Frentescu, he tried to retreat and used his pistol only when he believed both men were coming toward him. He said he shot Johnson first because Johnson was approaching and then fired at Morris. The defense characterized those actions as a response to an immediate threat, not the planned culmination of a club rivalry.
Other testimony cut against parts of that account. Pugh said he did not see a switchblade and testified that Frentescu was upright rather than seated on the ground when he fired. Medical examiners testified about the gunshot wounds that killed Morris and Johnson. Prosecutors also presented a jail witness who said Frentescu later described drawing Morris away from his home, using a fishing metaphor to explain how he expected Morris to follow. The witness said Frentescu spoke as though he had completed something he intended to do. Frentescu denied making those statements, leaving jurors to decide whether the jail account was credible.
The state’s theory extended beyond the shooting itself. Witnesses said Frentescu left the intersection in a red pickup and then returned after passersby stopped to help. Dorothy Sanders, a Veterans Affairs nurse traveling with her family, had begun CPR on Morris after initially believing she had encountered a traffic accident. Sanders testified that Frentescu approached her, ordered her to stop and threatened to shoot her if she continued. Another witness described hearing Frentescu angrily demand that Morris be allowed to die. Pugh gave a similar account of the nurse being forced away. Prosecutors presented the return to the scene as evidence relevant to intent; Frentescu testified that he did not remember the exchange with Sanders.
The rivalry evidence therefore functioned as only one piece of a much broader case. Prosecutors paired it with the route the men took to the intersection, Pugh’s eyewitness account, medical findings, the alleged jail admission and testimony about Frentescu’s return to the wounded victims. The defense tried to prevent the motorcycle-group background from overwhelming its self-defense argument. Its position was that the hostile relationship actually explained why Frentescu would reasonably fear Morris, particularly if Morris had threatened him in the past and displayed a knife during the confrontation. Jurors were asked to decide what Frentescu personally did and intended, not to decide the legitimacy of one motorcycle faction over another.
The case also illustrated the difficulty of separating group conflict from individual grievances when the two overlap. Testimony suggested that Frentescu and Morris’ hostility was personal but existed within a larger split involving their respective organizations. An expert described the significance of symbols and acts of disrespect in that culture. Yet the final evidence centered on ordinary questions in a murder trial: Who followed whom? Who was armed? Was there a knife? Was retreat possible? Who fired, and from what position? What did witnesses see before and after the shots? The jury’s capital murder verdict showed that members accepted the prosecution’s version beyond a reasonable doubt rather than Frentescu’s justification.
County records show that Frentescu was taken into custody shortly after the 2024 killings and was later indicted for capital murder. Authorities also investigated his wife, Alyssa Marleen Sevilla, who was arrested at the time on allegations involving the killings and evidence but had not been indicted as of coverage surrounding the trial. Sevilla was identified as a possible defense witness during Frentescu’s proceeding but invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Her decision meant jurors did not hear her account, even though testimony placed her driving the red pickup that carried Frentescu from and later back to the scene.
Once the jury convicted Frentescu, the penalty was fixed. Texas permits capital murder charges when more than one person is killed during the same criminal episode, and prosecutors had announced that they would not seek the death penalty. Life imprisonment without parole was therefore imposed after the verdict without a separate contest over a range of possible prison terms. The conviction marked the legal endpoint of the prosecution’s argument that the confrontation was not merely a fight that spiraled out of control but an intentional killing rooted in choices Frentescu made before, during and after the encounter.
The rivalry that helped frame the case remains part of the story, but it did not decide it by itself. Jurors heard Frentescu say he feared Morris, heard Pugh say no knife appeared, heard Sanders describe being threatened while providing CPR and heard prosecutors argue that Frentescu deliberately drew Morris to the intersection. After roughly an hour, they found him guilty of capital murder. As of Sept. 22, no later public report located in a search of the case showed that the conviction or mandatory life-without-parole sentence had been overturned.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 22, 2026.