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Former Houston municipal employee sentenced to 19 years in workplace killing

A former Houston municipal worker who murdered his supervisor in 2015 was sentenced on Wednesday to 19 years in state prison.

Tyrone Auzenne had pleaded guilty to killing his boss, Michael Vaughn, at the southeast Houston offices of the city’s solid waste management department on Dec. 21, 2015

The man, then 43, told authorities that he was being “picked on unfairly.” He said he walked into Vaughn’s office and shot him with a semi-automatic pistol he’d brought to work.

Auzenne posted $50,000 bond almost immediately and awaited trial for several years. After pleading guilty, state District Judge Josh Hill decided his sentence.

Vaughn’s family delivered witness testimony on Tuesday, telling Hill that the shooting appeared to stem from jealousy in the workplace.  Vaughn was recruited from the city of Dallas to Houston for his position, which Auzenne had previously held on a temporary basis, they said.

Auzenne had worked for department for 21 years, an agency spokeswoman said at the time of the shooting.

The slain man told his family members that he was frustrated with the way Auzenne was behaving and had even asked his superiors to transfer the man out of his office.

Regardless, the family said they found it hard to believe that he would have picked on an employee.

“Michael did not have bullying in his soul,” his brother, Ronald Vaughn, said.

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