ATLANTA — A decide has sentenced a person liable for a lethal capturing in a Lenox Sq. parking area to life in jail with out parole.
The sentence is larger than that requested by the prosecution. In court docket, the decide described the homicide as an “execution.”
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Fulton County Chief Deputy District Legal professional John Weitnauer mentioned Channel 2 investigative journalist Mark Winne The homicide occurred over what ought to have been a minor dispute over a parking spot.
Weitnauer mentioned he used a big diagram of the Lenox Sq. parking zone together with mall surveillance video and different proof to clarify to the jury what occurred.
He mentioned he really helpful a sentence of life in jail with the opportunity of parole due to LaFargue's age. He was 19 on the time of the killing and had no prison file as an grownup.
However Decide Alice Benton went additional, ordering him to serve life in jail with out the opportunity of parole, plus 5 years.
“On the homicide cost, I’m sentencing you to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole,” Benton mentioned. “This case is especially disturbing. Witnesses to the homicide described it as an execution. It was pure evil, with a gun pointed behind the sufferer’s head if you pulled the set off and killed the person, leaving his household and his son with out a father.”
Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis gave Winne her response to the sentencing.
“I'm happy with that. I perceive why the decide handed down the sentence she did,” Willis mentioned.
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Weitnauer says an SUV carrying LaFargue and 4 others sped right into a parking area that Nguyen and his girlfriend had been ready for to vacate.
Nguyen and LaFargue's group went to the mall's meals court docket. Prosecutors imagine Nguyen, unarmed and outnumbered, should have seen them depart and adopted them.
In the course of the confrontation, LaFargue, who had a gun in a shoulder bag, surrounded Nguyen and shot him moments later.
LaFargue's group left in a pickup truck, however it rapidly crashed and LaFargue fled, abandoning the gun and a hat along with his DNA on it.
“The protection was that Mr. LaFargue pulled out the gun, tried to strike the sufferer and the gun unintentionally discharged. A protection that the jury evidently rejected, however one which I imagine might be upheld on enchantment,” mentioned protection legal professional Patrick Brackley.
Weitnauer says that on the witness stand, LaFargue claimed that Nguyen began a fistfight with a member of LaFargue's group and that that man, who pleaded responsible to creating false statements to police beneath the first-offender regulation, additionally made that declare on the stand.
However not one of the state's unbiased witnesses backed up these claims.
“There isn’t any proof that Mr. Nguyen ever threw any punches at Mr. LaFargue,” Weitnauer mentioned.
“It didn’t make sense. There have been lots of people round. It was in broad daylight,” mentioned prosecutor Danielle Russell.
Willis mentioned Lenox Sq. has improved its safety because the 2020 capturing.
“I do know there are individuals who say they gained’t go to the preferred locations in Atlanta. I’m not prepared to surrender on any a part of Atlanta, together with Lenox Mall,” Willis mentioned. “We predict Lenox has made nice strides since this case. I plan to proceed purchasing there. I need my constituents to proceed purchasing there. And I’m going to work with regulation enforcement to verify we proceed to take care of a protected setting.”
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