Victim’s family left reeling after Dallas man found legally insane in shooting death

The parents of John “Trey” Shaunfield III know who killed their son. So does a jury. The shooting was captured on video. And the gunman didn’t deny pulling the trigger.  

But Austin Tran won’t spend a day in prison. Last month, his lawyers convinced a jury his schizophrenia was to blame that day in August 2023 when he fired three shots into Shaunfield at a Dallas gun range, then turned the gun on himself. 

Tran was found not guilty by reason of insanity. 

For Trey’s family, those two words – not guilty – don’t feel like justice. 

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Bruce Buxkemper, Shaunfield’s stepfather. “In some ways it was just as devastating as the death.” 

Leslie Buxkemper, Shaunfield’s mother, still remembers the shock she felt when the verdict was read. Then the wave of anger.   

“I thought it was very disrespectful to my son,” said Shaunfield’s father, John Shaunfield. 

Shaunfield had just earned his master’s degree from Texas A&M University a few months before and was two days away from his first law school classes at the University of North Texas.  

He was working a summer job at DFW Gun Range and Academy on Mockingbird Lane when Tran came in, rented a gun, and began shooting at a target. Not long after, he took aim at Shaunfield. 

Earlier this month, Tran was transferred to the maximum-security unit at Kerrville State Hospital, where he will be treated by a team of doctors, according to one of his attorneys.  

How long he will remain there is anyone’s guess. 

Related: In rare move, jury finds Dallas man not guilty by reason of insanity

Insanity defenses are so rare in Dallas County that local prosecutors can’t remember the last time it was raised at trial here, said Claire Crouch, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. The office declined to comment on the verdict in the Tran case.

Nationally, the defense is raised in only about 1% of criminal cases and is usually unsuccessful, according to a report by Texas Health and Human Services that didn’t provide state statistics. Around 86% of the cases involve non-violent crimes, the report said. 

To be found not guilty by reason of insanity in Texas, the defense must prove at the time of the incident that the defendant’s mental state prevented them from knowing their conduct was wrong.

Sometimes, people refuse to pursue the defense despite their lawyer’s recommendation, said Dr. Sanjay Adhia, a forensic psychiatrist and assistant professor at UTHealth Houston who lectures on the topic and has conducted multiple evaluations of defendants.

“A lot of times, people think the insanity defense is a get-out-of-jail card, but that’s really not the case,” Adhia said. “There are people who prefer going to prison rather than a state hospital.”

Between 2014 and 2023, the number of people admitted to Texas state psychiatric hospitals after being found not guilty by reason of insanity each fiscal year ranged from a high of 199 in 2018 to a low of 101 in 2022, the report showed.  

Earlier this year, after a man found not guilty by reason of insanity for the 2017 fatal stabbing of a University of Texas student was transferred from a state psychiatric hospital to a less secure group home, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked the Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice to examine how the state monitors and processes such defendants. Patrick also asked the committee to recommend policies that will emphasize public safety. 

Shaunfield’s family believes Texas should do away with the insanity defense. At the very least, they would prefer a “guilty but insane” law like the ones used in states like Utah, Idaho and Montana. In such cases, the defendant’s mental illness is acknowledged, but so is their criminal responsibility. They also could face the potential of going to jail after their hospitalization. 

“I just feel strongly that there are consequences to your actions,” Leslie Buxkemper said. “He took a life and he should be held accountable.”  

John Shaunfield agreed. “Mental health is definitely an issue, but I think we’re making it a bigger issue than it should be,” he said. “There has to be consequences to committing murder.”

Treatment, they said, isn’t the same as punishment.

Life couldn’t have been going much better for Trey Shaunfield in the days leading up to his death, according to his family.  

In addition to all his school success, he had a girlfriend he loved, a family that adored him and a strong faith in God. He also had a tight-knit group of friends from his days at Parish Episcopal School in Dallas he enjoyed hanging out with.  

Shaunfield and two of his high school buddies decided to take summer jobs at the gun range where Shaunfield’s younger brother, Austin, had worked the summer before. Shaunfield thought it would be a fun way to earn some extra money while he waited for law school to begin, his family said. 

“He was very disciplined,” John Shaunfield said of his son’s work ethic and determination to succeed. “If I was as disciplined as him, I’d be a billionaire by now.” 

Tran’s life was on a much different path.  

On the day of the shooting, Tran, then 25, was unemployed and had recently been evicted from his apartment in Dallas, said attorney Neil Pask, who defended Tran at trial. He was due in court in Tarrant County earlier that day on charges involving drugs, resisting arrest and failing to appear at a previous court hearing, but once again he didn’t show up, the lawyer said.

“Tran had a rough upbringing,” Pask said. “His parents split early and his father was diagnosed with schizophrenia when Austin was an infant.” 

Tran’s mother also was mentally ill, and attempted suicide multiple times, he said.

“The evidence showed that she abused him,” Pask said.

Tran went to live with an uncle in California, the defense lawyer said. After the uncle disappeared and was found dead in a nearby lake, Tran returned to Texas.

In September 2022 – less than a year before shooting Trey – he called 911 and threatened to jump off his apartment balcony. Tran asked the responding officers to shoot him in the face, Pask said. 

On Aug. 11, 2023, Tran entered the range around 5 p.m. and rented a gun. Video recorded by the business’s security cameras showed him firing at a target when Shaunfield came into the room, according to an arrest affidavit and Pask.

Shaunfield was walking toward the door when Tran turned and fired multiple shots at him, the affidavit said. One bullet struck the 24-year-old in the head. He died before help could arrive. 

Tran shot himself three times in the neck immediately afterward. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition. 

Tran was released from the hospital several days later and booked on a murder charge into the Dallas County jail, where he remained while awaiting trial. He faced up to life in prison.

Tran’s lawyers soon notified the court they planned to pursue an insanity defense.  

Two experts hired by the defense examined Tran and testified at trial.  

They told the jury Tran was not sane at the time of the shooting, and that they had diagnosed him with schizophrenia, Pask said. They also reported that Tran told them the same thing he told a doctor at Parkland Hospital after the shooting: That he fired at Shaunfield because he heard voices telling him Shaunfield was going to shoot him, according to Pask.

“Our experts concluded that he had a genetic predisposition to mental illness and that environmental factors ultimately led to him being symptomatic of several diagnoses,” said Sheridan Lewis, another of Tran’s defense attorneys.    

The prosecution called one expert. He testified Tran didn’t have a severe mental disease or defect, Lewis said, which would mean he didn’t qualify for an insanity defense.   

Tran was assigned to Kerrville State Hospital, in the Texas Hill Country, about an hour north of San Antonio. There, a team of doctors will evaluate him, develop a treatment plan, and provide regular reports to the court.  

The first, which had to be filed within 30 days of Tran’s acquittal, has been completed, Pask said. The Kerrville doctors confirmed Tran’s previous diagnosis of schizophrenia, and determined he needs to remain hospitalized, the lawyer said. 

State District Judge Raquel Jones, who presided over Tran’s trial, maintains control over his case. As long as she presides over Dallas County’s 203rd District Court, it will be up to her to decide, based on doctors’ reports, whether he should remain in a secure treatment facility, can be managed elsewhere or receive outpatient care.

Under state law, a defendant found not guilty by reason of insanity cannot be committed longer than the maximum incarceration time they would have faced if convicted. In Tran’s case, that would have been a life sentence.

Shaunfield’s family said they will do all they can to ensure he is never released.