Suspect in Houston-area real estate agent's Downtown Dallas killing denied bond reduction

DALLAS - A bond hearing was held for a man accused of shooting and killing a 28-year-old real estate agent in Downtown Dallas.

Ashlee Long was killed, and 36-year-old William Kistler was injured, after a night out on April 5.

After family members and police took to social media, 34-year-old Kendrick Finch turned himself in to police. He is charged with murder.

Bond hearing for murder suspect

What Happened:

Finch was in court for the hearing.

Before the bond hearing, he was being held in the Dallas County jail with a bond of $500,000. Finch's attorneys were seeking a reduction in that bond.

After hearing testimony from the prosecutors, the defense attorney, the lead detective in the case, and Finch's mother, the judge decided to deny the bond reduction.

Prosecutors for the state said in closing remarks, "On this particular evening, there is no doubt, and Mr. Finch must own that he was the first one to step out with a gun. With no gun presented at that point, when it comes to an escalation from whatever this might have been, that was all ordained the moment that Mr. Finch decided to step out of that vehicle with a gun in his hand and present it to the people that he was looking right at. From the evidence that I see, it is our firm belief that Mr. Finch was the first one to shoot. That he has to own. He fired that gun at least eight times. In a crowded residential commercial street with cars and people walking all around."

Finch's attorney said in closing statements that it will be up to the jury if this shooting was in self-defense. 

"We know for sure Ashley Long would be alive today except for William Kistler. William Kisseler is the one who started everything that night. It showed in the video. It shows his actions, how he was acting. We don't have the toxicology report yet of these two individuals, but I can bet where that's going to end up. He's trying to fight random people on the street and then my client's car. Driving by at a normal rate of speed gets hit," he said. 

He demonstrated the seven seconds he says his client took to get out of the vehicle. He goes over how, during those seven seconds, he says Kislter is trying to get a gun out of Long's purse. 

"What I do know is my client never gets out of that car except Mr. Kistler is reaching for that gun immediately… but if you watch that video, Mr. Kistler, when he's fighting around trying to get that gun and gets it, goes like this towards my client." At that moment, the defense attorney lunges forward, acting out what he says he saw in the video. 

"And when he takes those steps towards my client, my client has every right under the law to defend himself."

Members of Long and Finch's families were in attendance.

Video of the shooting was shown during the hearing. It showed the moment Long was shot, and what happened in the minutes before the shooting.

Ashlee Long shooting

The backstory:

Long was visiting from the Richmond-Rosenberg area in Southwest Houston, when she and a group of friends left a bar in Downtown Dallas just after 2 am.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, surveillance video captured the shooting off Main Street.

Police say the man Long was with, Kistler, "reached out and brushed his hand along the passenger side of a passing Mercedes."

The passenger of that car, later identified by detectives as 34-year-old Kendrick Finch, exited the Mercedes "with a gun in his hand."

The affidavit states Kistler reached into Long's purse and pulled out his gun.

That's when police say Finch opened fire, striking both Long and Kistler.

Kistler was able to fire back but Finch then took off.

Long later died at the hospital.

Kistler was also shot, but he survived.

Kendrick Finch

Dig deeper:

Finch does have a criminal history, including drug charges and burglary.

Downtown DallasCrime and Public SafetyTexas