Fugitive with Sherman ties placed on Texas 10 Most Wanted list; reward reaches $7,500

By GvilleTX Newsroom

The Texas Department of Public Safety put James Lee Kirby, a 49-year-old fugitive whose last known city is Sherman, on the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list on Thursday, July 9, and Texas Crime Stoppers has posted a reward of up to $7,500 for information that leads to his arrest, the agency announced.

Kirby's entry on the department's fugitive website shows him wanted on one count of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault and a failure-to-appear charge connected to first-degree rape and incest counts.

DPS describes Kirby as a white man born May 23, 1977. Sherman appears on his listing as his last known city, and the agency says his connections run through Grayson County, including Sherman, and into Bryan County, Oklahoma.

The case history laid out on the fugitive page begins in late 2024. Kirby was arrested in Grayson County on Nov. 5 of that year on an aggravated sexual assault charge, DPS says. Several weeks after the arrest, according to the agency, he made bond and left jail.

He also had a pending case in Oklahoma. In Bryan County, DPS says, Kirby faced first-degree rape and incest charges and had been freed ahead of trial on conditions that included wearing a GPS tracking device. The device stopped functioning immediately before the trial was set to begin in early 2026, the department says.

Warrants came from both sides of the state line. Bryan County issued a failure-to-appear warrant on Feb. 2, according to DPS, and Grayson County followed with a warrant of its own on June 2. About five weeks after the Grayson County warrant, DPS placed Kirby on the Most Wanted list.

The reward money does not come from DPS itself. In the July 9 announcement, the department said Texas Crime Stoppers offers the cash for tips leading to Kirby's arrest, and that Crime Stoppers rewards are funded through the Governor's Public Safety Office.

The department also reported on the program's results this year. Forty-five people featured on Texas 10 Most Wanted lists have been arrested so far in 2026, DPS said, and $61,500 has been paid out in reward money for tips.

Kirby's complete entry remains posted on the department's Texas 10 Most Wanted website, which on Friday continued to list him as a current fugitive with the reward set at up to $7,500.