Man sentenced to life in prison for killing Collin County woman he was dating under a false name

A married man was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for killing a Collin County woman last year which he met under a false name and prompted an extensive search after friends reported him missing.

A jury convicted him Oscar Ferguson, 33, who is also called Kevin Brown, after finding him guilty of murdering 33-year-old Kayla KelleyCollin County court records show. The conviction and sentence capped the end of a trial that began earlier this week.

Kelley was reported missing on January 11, 2023by her friends after she hadn't been seen for several days, the Collin County Sheriff's Office said afterward. Her car was found in a remote area in Frisco. According to one statement with arrest warrantKelley was dating Ferguson, but discovered he was married and using a false name, and she told friends she planned to blackmail him.

Before his arrest, Ferguson told investigators the two met online and began dating in the summer of 2022. He used the name Kevin with her, the affidavit said, and he admitted Kelley understood his real name and that he was married.

Investigators with the sheriff's office and the Texas Rangers found Kelley's body in a field near the intersection of Kingswood and Prairie Oak boulevards in Grand Prairie, authorities said. Ferguson allegedly killed her and then buried her near his home in Grand Prairie. The Tarrant County medical examiner's office ruled her death a homicide and said her cause of death was asphyxiation or drowning.

In the statement, investigators wrote that Frisco police officers found her car “burnt beyond recognition” on a deserted county road in Frisco the day after she was reported missing.

He told investigators he last saw Kelley on Jan. 10, which authorities said was the last time her phone was used and where her car was. Six days after Ferguson's arrest on January 14, he was charged with murder.

During the penalty phase of the trial, Ferguson took the stand and told jurors he did not kill Kelley, claiming he had been kidnapped by three men, one of whom said he was angry at her for having an affair. KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported. He said the kidnappers must have killed him.

His lawyer, Edwin King, said that “there is no evidence of any kind that links Alexander Ferguson to the murder of this woman,” the newspaper reported.

Terrica Brown, Kelley's older sister, said earlier Dallas Morning News that Kelley grew up in Alabama and was an avid basketball and football fan. She was a sweet woman, she said, who was loved by her many siblings who were planning to visit her in North Texas a month after she disappeared.

Describing her death then, Brown said, “Most of us feel like it's a dream and we're trying to wake up. It's a nightmare.”