After months of legal drama, viral video footage, and enough sealed divorce records to make a soap opera blush, a Lubbock County grand jury has decided not to indict Kyle Carruth in the 2021 shooting death of Chad Read. The Texas Attorney General’s Office presented multiple days of evidence, eyewitness testimony, and input from Read’s family — but the jurors ultimately said “nope” to criminal charges.
Read, 54, was shot during a custody dispute with his ex-wife. Carruth, the armed husband of Judge Anne-Marie Carruth (awkward), inserted himself into the argument, went inside, came back with a rifle, and ended up pulling the trigger. The shooting was caught on video and spread across social media, fueling public outrage and calls for justice.
Attorney Tony Buzbee, representing Read’s widow, blasted the outcome, calling it a failure of the criminal justice system: “Chad Read died unarmed, shot and killed while simply trying to determine the whereabouts of his son.” He promised the fight would continue in civil court, where a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit is already underway.
Carruth’s attorney, David Guinn, naturally disagreed, praising the grand jury’s “wise decision” and arguing that Carruth acted lawfully under Texas’s Castle Doctrine, which basically lets you shoot if you feel your property or life is threatened.
So, no criminal charges — just a dead dad, a viral video, two lawsuits, and Lubbock once again looking like the setting for a true-crime documentary nobody asked for. The Castle Doctrine might protect Carruth from prison, but it won’t shield him from the civil lawyers sharpening their knives.
