Murder of Lauren Landavazo

Lauren Landavazo, 13, was fatally shot on the afternoon of September 2, 2016, while walking home from McNiel Junior High School in Wichita Falls, Texas, with her best friend, 13-year-old Makayla Smith. As the girls walked through a residential alley, a vehicle pulled alongside them and gunfire erupted. Landavazo was struck multiple times and died at the scene; Smith was wounded but survived, with a bullet remaining in her body.

Two days later, on September 4, 2016, a police officer stopped a vehicle matching descriptions circulated after the shooting. The driver, 20-year-old Kody Austin Lott, was taken into custody after a search of the vehicle turned up a prohibited weapon. In a lengthy recorded statement, Lott told investigators he had watched Landavazo from his apartment window and had grown fixated on her, though the two had no relationship, and that he became angry after learning she had a boyfriend. According to his arrest warrant, Lott said the shooting was not senseless because he had planned it after "talking to the devil about it." He said he retrieved his stepfather's semi-automatic, AR-15-style .22-caliber rifle, waited at his window for the girls to pass, then followed them by vehicle before opening fire.

A Wichita Falls grand jury indicted Lott in mid-November 2016 on one count of murder, for Landavazo's death, and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, for the wounding of Smith. At the time, Landavazo's mother, Bianka, said the family intended to push for a change to the Texas capital murder statute, which then applied only to the killing of victims under age 10. Lott was initially found incompetent to stand trial and underwent mental health treatment before the case proceeded.

The case went to trial in September 2018 at the Tim Curry Justice Center in Fort Worth, following a change of venue. Lott's attorneys sought a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity; a prosecution mental health expert testified that while Lott had a mental disorder, he understood right from wrong. On September 19, 2018, a jury convicted Lott of both murder and aggravated assault after roughly 40 minutes of deliberation. He was sentenced the next day to life in prison for the murder and the maximum 20 years for the aggravated assault. He was transferred from the Wichita County Jail to Texas Department of Criminal Justice custody on November 30, 2018.

The case prompted the Texas Legislature to pass Senate Bill 719, known as "Lauren's Law," which took effect September 1, 2019. The law expanded capital murder eligibility to include victims age 10 through 14, closing the statutory gap that had limited Lott's original charge to first-degree murder, while barring the death penalty in cases that qualify solely under the new provision, making life without parole the mandatory sentence instead. Landavazo's parents, Vern and Bianka, have continued advocacy work in her memory, designating September 2 each year as a day for acts of kindness.