His sentence seemed a bit light given the years of significant abuse he'd subjected Amber and Tiffany to, but evidence of the abuse was mostly circumstantial and the fact that the girls were not currently living in Texas would have made the case more difficult to prosecute. Deanna didn't know about the plea bargain until she called up and asked. They told her they didn't want the girls to feel guilty, but she didn't understand what a child would have to feel guilty about. Further, Amber and Tiffany lived in fear that their father would come back and get them.

All the same, Tony found his sentence almost intolerable. Although he had committed four as yet unsolved murders, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea weeks after accepting it. His attorney said he'd only learned of the sentencing conditions 15 minutes before accepting the plea deal and he assumed accepting it would allow him to keep his job at Southwestern Bell, but the company fired him anyway. The judge denied the motion, and an appeals court upheld the sentence.

All attempts by Deanna and Gina to have him investigated further went nowhere. Gina tried to tell the Houston DAs about his habit of cruising for teenage girls and non-consensual sexual interactions with females. She believed he must have abused dozens of girls. They paid no attention to her. And although Tony had twice failed drug tests during his first year of probation, he suffered no punishment for it. That his murder spree was finally discovered came almost as an accident; the four victims' cases had long since gone cold and the task force investigating the murders disbanded.