Thomas Frederick Greenwell (August 6, 1956 – July 15, 2013) was a judge of the Texas 319th District Court based in Corpus Christi in

Nueces County Nueces County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 353,178, making it the 16th-most populous county in the state. The county seat is Corpus Christi. The county was formed in 1846 from portions of S ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The first Republican to serve on the 319th court, Greenwell was first elected in 2002 and reelected in 2006 and 2010.

Legal career

In 1981, Greenwell graduated from the University of Texas School of Law. In 1978, he received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

with concentration in political science and journalism from

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Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

In 1981, he was appointed a staff attorney on the Texas 13th Court of Appeals. He was chief of the legal staff on that court from 1991 to 1996. From 1997 until 2002, he was in private practice. For two years Greenwell served as the presiding administrative district judge of Nueces County. He also presided over the newly established Nueces County Veterans Court, which uses a collaborative approach among the courts, probation and corrections, and law enforcement agencies. It assists with cases of substance abuse, post traumatic stress, and anger. Greenwell ran unsuccessfully in the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

held on November 6, 2012, for the position of judge of the Texas 13th District Court of Appeals for a term that would have expired in 2018. He was defeated by the

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Nora Longoria, 262,235 (59.5 percent) to 178,554 (40.5 percent). He had planned to seek another term on the state district court in the Republican

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scheduled for March 4, 2014. His friend and campaign manager Al Hinojosa described Greenwell as "caring" and "very steady" and expressed surprise at his sudden death.

Suicide and aftermath

Greenwell was found in his chambers dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. A handwritten will was found near the body. According to Nueces County Sheriff Jim Kaelin, the judge faced financial ruin. He had exhausted spending caps on five credit cards and owed the repayment of loans. Kaelin said that Greenwell earned at least $140,000 annually but did not apparently live extravagantly. Investigators are looking into possible

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attempts against the judge. A memorial service was to be held on July 25, 2013, at the First

United Methodist The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

Church in Corpus Christi. Greenwell had a surviving brother. He left his estate to Albert Fuentes (born ), one of the persons of interest in Greenwell's death. Fuentes has in the past had scrapes with the law, and Greenwell had been trying to help him for at least six years. Fuentes moved rent-free into a house that the judge owned in Sun Valley Estates and was allowed to drive Greenwell's vehicle.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenwell, Tom 1956 births 2013 suicides 2013 deaths Texas state court judges Texas Republicans Texas lawyers People from Corpus Christi, Texas Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Texas School of Law alumni Suicides by firearm in Texas 20th-century Methodists 21st-century Methodists American United Methodists 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges