An arrest affidavit released Wednesday paints a brutal picture of the March 14 double homicide at O'Reilly's Auto Parts in Temple.
Theodore Dwayne Sims, 47, walked into a Temple pawn shop and asked for the "cheapest shotgun" he could buy, the affidavit said. He spent $145 on a 12-gauge shotgun, a pawn shop employee told police, according to the affidavit.
In the affidavit, detectives said they believe Sims then tried to confront an assistant manager and another employee at the Napa Auto Parts in Belton, from where he had been fired a week earlier for stealing. According to the affidavit, Sims wore a ski mask and threatened them with a shotgun, but the pair managed to run away.
Sims, who quit another job at O'Reilly's Auto Parts in late 2017, went over there, bound two O'Reilly's employees with duct tape, shot them in the heads and stole money from the cash register, according to the affidavit.
The victims, Robert Pellerin III and Cody Cornell, were found lying chest down in a pool of blood after their significant others called 911 to report neither had come home after work. Police found the store's doors unlocked, the lights on and no shell casings inside.
From there, investigators said Sims checked himself into a Killeen hotel, where a housekeeper later found a blood-soaked wash cloth stashed under the bathroom sink, according to the affidavit.
Police obtained an arrest warrant and caught Sims near the Walmart in Harker Heights. The affidavit said police searched his vehicle and found the bloody 12-gauge shotgun, spent shell casings, bloody shoes and pants, along with plastic bags similar to the ones used for finances at O'Reilly's. Police found $258 in his wallet, along with a packet containing $1,970, according to the affidavit, which also mentioned drops of human blood being found on the driver's side floorboard, the door and the console.
Sims was in the Bell County Jail Wednesday, charged with capital murder of multiple persons and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to online jail records. He was being held on $2 million bond.