Hearne Man sentenced to life for wife’s murder

COLLEGE STATION — A Hearne man will spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to the 2023 killing of his wife, bringing an emotional close to a case that weighed heavily on families in Hearne and College Station. The case began in June 2023, when College Station officers were called to a home on Renne Lane. A 911 caller reported that her father had confessed to killing her stepmother. When officers arrived, they found Sherry Shugart Jutson dead in the main bedroom. Two young children were inside the home but did not witness the violence. The caller told police her father, 47-year-old Brian Alan Jutson Sr., was driving to her home in Bryan. Officers from College Station, Bryan, and the Texas Department of Public Safety surrounded the residence and took him into custody without incident. Investigators said Jutson told detectives he had driven seven hours from his job in West Texas because he believed his wife was having an affair. He admitted to strangling her and stabbing her more than 30 times with scissors before showering, changing clothes, and leaving. An autopsy later confirmed his account. On November 11, Jutson pleaded guilty to murder as the jury sat in the courtroom. The case moved directly into sentencing, where jurors heard about the brutality of the attack and the messages he had sent to his wife in the days before her death. On November 13, the jury sentenced him to life in prison, closing a painful chapter for the victim’s loved ones and the community that followed the case from the beginning.