A deadly shooting in Lubbock that gained worldwide notoriety quietly came to a close after surviving family members of Chad Read agreed to settle their wrongful death lawsuits against developer Kyle Carruth.
A judgement was filed Nov. 22 in the 237th District Court, closing the wrongful death lawsuits that Jennifer Read, Chad Read’s widow, and Jinx Read, his mother, filed against Carruth in December 2021 — a month after the deadly shooting.
The judgement was filed about three weeks after a Nov. 4 trial was set for the lawsuits, which were combined in 2023.
The document states Carruth’s insurer will pay $20,000 split evenly between Read’s four children.
Jennifer Read sought $50,000,000 in damages from Carruth.
However, the document states Jennifer Read and Carruth will settle the case privately.
Carruth’s attorney, H. Grady Terrill, declined to comment for this story citing pending litigation. Jennifer Read’s attorney’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
Deadly shooting of Chad Read in south Lubbock
The lawsuits stem from Chad Read’s Nov. 5, 2021 fatal shooting during a child custody dispute between Read and his ex-wife, Christina Read, at Carruth’s residence and office in the 2100 block of 90th Street.
During the argument, Carruth, who was Christina Read’s boss, told Chad Read to leave.
Video of the Nov. 5 shooting death of Chad Read was released Wednesday by Jennifer Read, who is now seeking custody of her husband’s children.
Read ignored Carruth and continued arguing with his ex-wife.
Meanwhile, Carruth went into his home and returned with a rifle.
A confrontation between the men erupted, with Carruth firing a warning shot at Read’s feet as the two men struggled over the weapon. During the struggle, Carruth is thrown off several feet, but still holding the rifle. He spins around and fires twice at Read, who was struck and killed.
Lubbock police responded to the shooting and Carruth was not arrested.
As Lubbock Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit investigators worked on the case, Lubbock County District Attorney Sunshine Stanek recused her office from the case, citing Carruth’s relationship with a local elected official, a district judge, who could potentially testify in the case.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office took over the investigation.
Special grand jury declines to indict Kyle Carruth
In April 2022, a Lubbock County grand jury specially assembled to review the shooting declined to return an indictment charging Carruth with a crime in the shooting.
In her lawsuit against Carruth, Jennifer Read alleged that Carruth started an “unnecessary verbal and physical confrontation with Chad Read, and interjected himself into matters that did not concern him.”
At a news conference shortly after filing her lawsuit, Jennifer Read said she and her husband went to Carruth’s property to pick up one of Chad Read’s sons, who was supposed to be with his father an hour earlier as part of a custody agreement.
Tony Buzbee, right, speaks about the Nov. 5 fatal shooting of Chad Read and called foe anyone with information on the case to come forward.
“We only went there to try and find his son who we thought would be there,” she said. “Chad was not a violent man. He did not have a gun.”
Carruth hires former Lubbock police chief as expert
However, according to a report by former Lubbock police chief Greg Stevens, it was Read who wasn’t following the court-ordered custody agreement.
“Chad Read did not go to Kyle Carruth’s property to pick up his son…” Stevens wrote. “Rather, he went there to exert his authority over his ex-wife, Christina Read, as well as Kyle Carruth. Chad Read was trespassing and attempting to interfere with Christina Read’s lawful custody (of their youngest child). Chad Read was advised multiple times to leave the property.”
Stevens, who retired as LPD police chief two years before the shooting, was hired by Carruth in 2022 as an expert to review the case.
In January, Stevens was appointed as executive director of the Texas Commission on law enforcement.
Greg Stevens
Stevens’ report was not filed until September 2024, when he was designated as an expert in the case and was expected to testify at the trial.
As part of his investigation, Stevens spoke with Carruth and reviewed phone data from Chad Read, Christina Read, Jennifer Read and Kyle Carruth.
Stevens learned that on the day of the shooting, one of the Read’s sons was home sick and was not at school to be fetched by his father.
According to the Read’s custody agreement, Chad Read was allowed to pick his children up from school during his week of custody. However, as the youngest child did not go to school that day, the court order required Read to pick up his son at 6 p.m. at Christina’s home.
“Christina specifically told Chad that Colton was not with her at Kyle’s home/business and told him she would have him ready at 6 p.m. at her residence,” Stevens wrote.
Stevens said the text messages between Read and Christina that day indicated that Read was aware that their youngest child was at her mother’s home while she was at work.
“I’m on the way to your moms WITH the police,” Chad texted Christina.
However, Stevens wrote that instead of heading for his ex-mother-in-law’s home or fetching his other son from school, Read headed straight for Carruth’s business to confront Christina.
Stevens found a text Read sent his son, who was still at school, telling him, “Don’t tell your mom that we don’t have you yet.”
Stevens’ report indicates the confrontation that led to the shooting appeared to be an escalation of a monthslong campaign of harassment Read started, which included having Carruth followed by private investigators to find evidence to humiliate him.
The report described Read as a vindictive ex-husband bent on ruining his ex-wife’s life. Carruth, who he believed she was dating, appeared to be caught in the crossfire.
“Chad had developed somewhat of an infatuation or obsession with Kyle and with proving he and Christina were having a romantic relationship,” Steven’s wrote. “Chad believed it to be true regardless of its actual veracity or any evidence or lack of evidence.”
Phone data appeared to show Jennifer Read shared and encouraged her husband’s fixation.
Text messages between Jennifer and Chad indicated the couple hoped to get damaging information from his sons to use against their mother in court, according to the report.
“I so want to —- with her life,” Jennifer Read texted Chad. “I need it.”
Stevens said he found no evidence that Christina and Kyle’s relationship extended beyond the office.
Stevens learned that in July of that year, Jennifer and Chad Read had been spreading the rumor that the two were dating. According to his report, Jennifer’s “card reader” and “spiritual advisor” composed a letter that appeared to confirm the romantic relationship between the two and mailed it to numerous people.
Jennifer made efforts to make sure the letters were “fingerprint free,” Stevens wrote.
At the time of the shooting, Carruth was in the middle of divorcing Anne-Marie Carruth, who was then the 72nd District Court Judge.
Their divorce records include an affidavit from Anne-Marie Carruth informing the court that she was “notified that my husband, William Kyle Carruth is under investigation for the shooting and killing of his girlfriend’s children’s father after he attempted to pick up his children late Friday afternoon. My knowledge of the incident is very limited at this time and it is my understanding that the police are still investigating.”
Chad Read’s phone history showed him trying to meet with Anne-Marie Carruth, saying he had “info for you that would interest you” about her soon-to-be ex-husband. However, it did not appear the two met.
Meanwhile, Chad Read’s phone data also showed he secretly took pictures of Christina’s vehicle parked at Carruth’s home office.
About a month before the deadly confrontation, Chad and Jennifer hired private investigators to follow Christina and Kyle Carruth before, during and after a public fundraising event.
The couple provided the investigators “a great deal of information” about Christina and Kyle including addresses, vehicle descriptions and license plate numbers in order to facilitate these efforts, referred to by the couple as “the operation.”
During the event, one of the private investigators took a picture of Carruth standing in a group with six other people, one man and five women. His shirt is unbuttoned, and he is wearing a crown he received at the event.
Chad Read shared the picture with multiple people with derogatory comments.
“How would you like to be a district judge in Lubbock and your spouse is out with his girlfriend (Christina) acting like this,” Read texted a friend.
The day before the shooting, Read ran into two prominent members of the community at a restaurant. During the encounter, Read shared the photo and reportedly told them that Carruth “needs his ass whipped.”
Stevens report on deadly shooting
Stevens said on the day of the shooting, Chad Read had no reason to be at Carruth’s residence, which was also used as an office. He said if Read believed his ex-wife was illegally withholding their son from him, he should have let the police handle the matter.
“Chad never expressed any concerns that (his son) was in any kind of imminent danger, so there was certainly no urgency,” Stevens wrote.
He said Read’s actions that day were fueled by his obsession and rage at his ex-wife and Carruth.
Meanwhile, Stevens said while Carruth had no right at that point to use deadly force against Read, he had the right to arm himself to protect Christina, himself and two of his employees who were inside the office, one of whom had already called the police.
However, Stevens said Lubbock police had previously been called to the address on an unrelated matter and had difficulty finding it. In fact, police had trouble finding the residence on the day of the shooting.
“It was reasonable for Kyle to arm himself considering Chad’s significantly larger size and strength over Kyle, Chad’s angry, aggressive and belligerent behavior since he arrived, along with the fact the Kyle knew Chad to be a potentially violent person who had been to prison previously,” Stevens wrote. “Kyle was rightly afraid the situation might turn violent at the hands of Chad and that such violence would be directed at him or Christina or another of his employees.”
Federal court records show Read was sentenced in 2009 to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to a count of money laundering. However, Read did not appear to have been charged with any violent crime.
Stevens said Carruth had no intention to use the weapon that day but hoped to scare Read away when he returned with his firearm, a Ruger 9mm Carbine rifle.
“(Carruth) advised me he chose that firearm because in the moment he felt it was the ‘largest and most intimidating’ one he had readily available,” Stevens wrote.
Stevens said a reasonable person would have likely withdrawn from the situation at the sight of the weapon.
“(Carruth) was counting on this normal response from (Read); however, (Read) was not an ordinarily reasonable person, at least not on the afternoon of November 5, 2021,” Stevens wrote.
In the videos of the confrontation, Read could be heard telling Carruth after seeing him with the weapon, “Do it, you better ——- use it mother——, because I’ll do it, I’ll take it from you, and ——- use it on you!”
He said after Read flung Carruth “by brute strength” Carruth barely managed to keep his weapon and believed Read was going to come at him again, take his rifle away from him and use it as he threatened.
Stevens said it wasn’t until the men struggled with the gun that Carruth feared for his life and fired at Read.
“Kyle Carruth feared for his life,” Stevens wrote. “He believed and perceived that Chad Read was imminently about to attack him again and that if he did so or was able to take the rifle away, Kyle believed he would suffer death or at least serious egregious bodily injury.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Report sheds light on Kyle Carruth, Chad Read wrongful death suit
