Man arrested, charged again in decade-old Kyle double homicide

KYLE, Texas - A man previously accused of a 2015 double homicide has been arrested and charged again.

52-year-old Larry Simon of Louisiana has been arrested in Bedford County, Tenn. for capital murder in the deaths of 44-year-old Tina Combs and 45-year-old James Wright in Kyle.

The backstory:

In June 2015, police found Combs and Wright dead at a home on South Sledge Street. They were childhood friends who had recently re-connected.

Their deaths were ruled a double homicide, and it would be years before Kyle police would make an arrest in the case. 

Simon was arrested in February 2021 and charged with capital murder. Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett said then that Simon had been living with and working for Wright at the time of the murders and had been identified as a suspect early in the investigation.

Simon had been in the Hays County Jail on "unrelated charges" when KPD secured two arrest warrants for capital murder. 

Charges dismissed in 2021

According to Hays County court records, the capital murder charge was dismissed in March 2024.

FOX 7 Austin has reached out to the Hays County District Attorney's office for clarification on why the charge was dismissed and what led to the charge being refiled, but has not received a response.

Investigation continued, new charges

Police said their investigation never ended.

"I think there's a lot of things that we were able to go back and just make certain that any questions that a jury may have or someone may have about the case, that we could get them answers. Oftentimes we try to anticipate how would someone question or interpret this evidence or how would they feel as if it's complete evidence and sometimes you just go out and you get more information, more details, more clarity. Sometimes that takes interviews with individuals and sometimes that's physical evidence," Chief Barnett said.

That work led to a new indictment from a Hays County grand jury and the search for Simon began.

"Without having a permanent home address, without having family members that knew his exact location, by design or just by lack of communication from him, made it a lot more difficult," Chief Barnett said.

Police eventually found him in Bedford County, Tennessee, and he now faces a capital murder charge again.

Victim's daughter, ex-husband speak out about arrest

What they're saying:

A little more than 11 years ago, Madison Hall said she had a feeling something was wrong. Her mom, 44-year-old Tina Combs, had suddenly stopped answering.

"It was June and we were trying to get in contact with her and we all thought that was really strange and couldn't reach her. It was just one of those gut feelings, one of the intuition, just told me something happened," Madison Hall said.

She was right. For Hall, who was just 15 years old at the time, the loss was almost too much to process.

"It takes a minute for you to sit with that and be like is this really real right now," Hall said.

"It's hard not to get hopeful because we were hopeful for it in 21 when Larry Simon did go to jail," Hall said.

For Combs’ ex-husband, Randy Hall, he said he hopes this arrest helps her seven children who have spent more than a decade growing up without their mom.

"I just really think there needs to be justice so we can find some closure for all the family members, but my main concern is my children. I take my job as a father very seriously, sometimes too seriously at times, and they're dealing without their mother now, they have for the last 10 going on 11 years and I'm hoping and praying for some kind of closure for the kids," Randy Hall said.

"She is still loved to this day, she always will be," Madison Hall said.

What's next:

Simon is being held in the Bedford County Jail pending extradition to Hays County, where he will face the charge and await trial.

Crime and Public SafetyKyle