As the old joke goes, “To be a great prosecutor, you’ve gotta have conviction.”
All laughs aside, if convictions are the test of a successful prosecutor, Grayson County’s Kerye Ashmore is one of the best. He has tried more than 350 felony jury cases in his career — and only lost once. He has secured 75 life sentences. He has a 100% success rate on the seven death penalty cases he has tried. And, after 41 years in public service, Ashmore will retire from the prosecutor’s office at the end of July.
He has served Grayson County as First Assistant District Attorney for the past two decades. Prior to that, he served in Lamar County. He has worked for two elected DA’s in Grayson County and once served as interim DA after Joe Brown was appointed to a Federal Prosecutor’s post by President Donald Trump.
“Kerye is just a very effective lawyer. One of those guys you want on your side. The courthouse is going to miss him,” Brown said.
Ashmore’s roots run deep in the area, though he is a self-described “military kid.” He was born in Texas in 1954 but his dad was a career Air Force pilot and they moved around the world. His grandparents lived in Paris, Texas, so the family settled there when his father retired.
He graduated from Paris High School and Paris Junior College before finishing his undergraduate work at Howard Payne University in Brownwood. From there, it was off to law school at SMU. He was admitted to the Bar in 1979 and started practicing law in Paris.
In 1983, the District Attorney in Lamar County asked Ashmore to go to work for him as a first assistant. He did both public and private practice initially because that was allowed at the time. He shifted to the DA’s office full-time in 1989 and later served one term as the elected DA in Lamar County. He left Paris for a short stint at the DA’s office in Victoria before he was recruited to Grayson County in 2000 by a newly-elected District Attorney named Joe Brown.
“Kerye has really given his career to law enforcement, and to making this a better community. He could have gone into private practice long ago and made more money, but he loves being a prosecutor,” Brown said. “There are very few people in our community that have had as much of an influence as Kerye Ashmore has. He has handled some of the biggest prosecutions in the county, but he has also made law-enforcement officers better, and he has trained a lot of good lawyers.”
Over the past two decades, Ashmore has had a hand in some of the county’s most notorious cases, including the death penalty conviction of Andre Thomas.
“The Thomas case was especially gruesome,” Ashmore said. “This job is hard. We deal with bad cases. Kid cases— cases where the scenes are horrific. It’s hard but it’s necessary. You must compartmentalize and not take the work home with you. It’s a calling and I’ve been blessed to work with some of the best.”
Grayson County District Attorney work with Ashmore as assistant DA’s before he was elected to his current post.
“The Grayson County District Attorney’s Office is losing a tremendous asset in Kerye Ashmore,” Smith said. “His retirement will mean the loss of 41 years of experience and institutional knowledge that cannot be replaced. Kerye has had a very significant impact on the public safety of our community. We wish him only the best in the next phase of his life.”
Ashmore credits his other colleagues as well.
“My legal assistant Sandye Brown has been with me since day one in Grayson County,” he said. “She is incredible. She does not have a law degree but one could hardly tell. She knows more about the law than many attorneys I’ve met over the years.”
He also praised investigator Mike Ditto, former assistant Grayson County District Attorney Nathan Young, local law enforcement and the judges he has worked with.
“Good judges are often overlooked,” Ashmore said. “Good judges make the lawyers better. We’ve had some incredible judges in Grayson County.”
He also met his wife in Sherman— current Grayson County Clerk, and Whitesboro native Kelly Clark Ashmore.
“I couldn’t have done all this without the support of a wonderful wife who understands public service,” Kerye said. “Kelly and I are a team… and we love Whitesboro. It’s her hometown and I love the time we spend there.”
The affection is mutual.
“It’s amazing to me to be in any career for 40 plus years but certainly one such as prosecution,” Kelly said. “The things they see, the hours worked to protect the community is amazing & I’m very proud of him. He’s a wonderful husband, father and Papa and I’m so glad he is where he gets to spend more time with our family— very deserving.”
Between them, the Ashmores have four sons and six grandchildren. While Kerye plans on plenty more family time in the coming years, he is not leaving the legal profession altogether.
“I think I’m too young to quit altogether,” he said.
After a long vacation, Kerye Ashmore plans to join private practice with his friend and former boss Joe Brown.