The 48 Hours Live to Tell episode “The Vendetta” investigates the attempted murder of District Court Judge Julie Kocurek. She was the first female District Judge to sit on a criminal bench in Travis County: then-Governor George W. Bush appointed her in 1999.
On a rainy Friday night, November 6, 2015, Kocurek, her son Will, her sister and niece were driving home after going to a football game. Will had his learner’s permit so he drove; his mother was in the passenger seat. When they pulled into the driveway of their Austin, Texas home, Will got out of the car and an armed man was waiting for them. The gunman shot at the driver’s side of the car four times. Kocurek survived but has required dozens of surgeries to recover.
Chimene Onyeri, who was later convicted of 17 counts related to “a criminal theft and fraud enterprise that he ran,” admitted in court to shooting Kocurek but he claimed to have intended to just scare her. “My whole life, I never assaulted a woman,” Onyeri said in court. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 42 known as the “Judge Julie Kocurek Judicial and Courthouse Security Act of 2017,” which is designed to improve the security of judges in their courthouses and at their homes. 48 Hours Live to Tell: The Vendetta airs Saturday, April 13 at 10 pm on CBS.
