Who Killed LaQuarrie Jefferson?

[Palladin]

And the mother of the 7yo who pulled the trigger is awaiting trial for selling coke!

 

[TomH]

And the mother of the 7yo who pulled the trigger is awaiting trial for selling coke!

Must not be throwing enough money into the welfare system.

 

[Palladin]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...ing_death_soon_in_jurys_hands/?p1=Local_Links

What's the over/under on this bitch walking with a suspended sentance/time served ?

Home /News /Local /Mass.
Jury to get gun case against mother
At issue is role in boy’s slaying
By Brian R. Ballou
Globe Staff / August 6, 2010

A Suffolk County jury is expected to begin deliberating today in the trial of a Dorchester mother charged with involuntary manslaughter, stemming from the accidental shooting of her 8-year-old son by his young cousin in 2007.
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In a trial that began Monday and finished several days ahead of schedule, prosecutors sought to convince jurors that Lakeisha Gadson, 34, kept a loaded handgun, or allowed her teenage son, Jayquan McConnico, to keep a loaded handgun, in her apartment at 266 Seaver St., within reach of small children. Her nephew, then 7, accidentally shot Gadson’s son, Liquarry Jefferson, in the abdomen on June 24, 2007.

Gadson faces up to 20 years on the manslaughter charge. She is also charged with several other crimes, including child endangerment, unlawful possession of a firearm, improper storage of a firearm, and misleading police.

Assistant District Attorney David Deakin relied on testimony from a social worker, police investigators, and a taped telephone conversation Gadson had with her boyfriend, Jermaine Golden, who was in the Suffolk County Jail on an unrelated matter. In that conversation, recorded several days before the shooting, she referred to how her teenage son was “strapped,’’ a slang term for being armed.

The social worker, Jorge Santana, testified that when he spoke privately with Gadson in the days following the shooting, she “made a comment to me that she had brought a firearm into her home for protection.’’

Liquarry was shot and killed by his cousin moments after Liquarry found a 9mm handgun in a drawer in McConnico’s room. The cousin, who is now 10, testified Tuesday, saying, “I did it by accident.’’ His name is being withheld at the request of prosecutors, citing his age.

Gadson and McConnico, then 15, initially gave investigators false accounts of how Liquarry was shot, saying that armed men burst into the apartment, headed directly for McConnico’s room, and shot the boy. But their separate statements had numerous inconsistencies, and within several hours after the shooting, Gadson admitted that it was her nephew who shot her son.

McConnico, now 18, pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in 2008 and was ordered to be held in a youth detention center until he turns 21.

Gadson’s attorney, Peter Krupp, said yesterday in front of the jury of 10 men and four women that prosecutors failed to make a convincing case. “I don’t think a reasonable jury can find Miss Gadson guilty of any of the first four charges,’’ he said, referring to all the charges except misleading police.

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

Well, we'll have to see. There was a plea bargain on the table earlier and it fell through. I've been following the trial a little and it seems like they're going after her aggressively. One never knows what a jury will do and then there's sentencing. I'm confident she won't get what NESers would consider a stiff sentence. The worst charge on here is only involuntary manslaughter. I predict that if convicted she'll get 3-5 years.

 

[Palladin]

I win!


Mother acquitted in son’s shooting death
Suffolk jurors find she misled police
By Brian R. Ballou and Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | August 11, 2010

Lakeisha Gadson was acquitted yesterday of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her 8-year-old son, Liquarry Jefferson, who was accidentally shot three years ago by his 7-year-old cousin with a handgun the boys found stashed in a bedroom of her Dorchester apartment.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury also found Gadson not guilty of child endangerment, possession of a firearm, and improper storage of a firearm.

The verdict ends a case that cast a spotlight on one troubled family, and raised questions about parents’ responsibility to insulate children from danger. The case also stirred calls for tighter gun control and stiffer penalties for illegal gun sales.

The jury did find Gadson guilty of misleading police when, in the hours after Liquarry was shot, she concocted a story that three men in hooded sweatshirts had burst into her house and inexplicably shot the boy. That conviction carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

After the verdict was read, Gadson hugged family members as tears welled up in her eyes. She said in a statement later: “An enormous weight feels like it has been lifted. I hope that no parent ever has to experience what my whole extended family and I have been through over the last three years. If people can learn from this experience and can do everything possible to keep guns away from kids, maybe some good can come from Cory’s [Liquarry’s] death.’’

Her acquittal on the major charges in her son’s death elicited mixed reactions from community members and specialists in violence and parenting.

Her older son Jayquan McConnico, who kept the loaded gun in the house, was associated with a notorious Dorchester gang, according to police, and had an extensive juvenile record, including an arrest on an assault charge. He was shot in the calf by a drive-by gunman in 2004.

Gadson had dated several gang members, according to authorities and court records, including one whom police believe recruited Jayquan into the gang. The family had been the subject of intense intervention by social workers and police.

The Rev. Miniard Culpepper, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, had prayed with Gadson and her relatives in the days following Liquarry’s death. He described the verdict as just.

“She lost her son, and whenever you lose your child that’s enough punishment,’’ he said. “This not guilty verdict we pray will give her a new and fresh start so she can begin to make the necessary steps to move forward.’’

Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a child psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School, said that considering that Jayquan McConnico had been involved in gang activity, Gadson should have barred weapons from the house and searched to make sure none were accessible to the younger children.

“One wonders how the 8-year-old knew there was a gun in the house, where to go for it, and how the mother didn’t?’’ said Poussaint. “There had to be as much protection for the children and for the family as possible, and that is the responsibility of the parent.’’

Poussaint said the Gadson case is an opportunity to remind parents, especially those living in tough neighborhoods, to be vigilant.

“I think the message that’s coming out loud and clear is that when you let guns into the house and you’re not watching, you’re going to get tragedies of this type over and over again,’’ Poussaint said.

The jury, eight women and four men, seemed to struggle with the question of parental responsibility during its three days of deliberations. Jurors peppered Judge Thomas Connors with numerous questions. And, minutes before reaching a verdict, the jurors asked in a written note: “Does child endangerment comprise only the immediate circumstances surrounding the death, or can we consider the broader circumstances of the household.’’

Connors pondered the jurors’ question before they entered the courtroom, saying aloud: “I do not want this to be a lifestyle plebiscite.’’

He then told the jurors, once they had filed back into the courtroom, that the charge of child endangerment “relates to the presence of a firearm in the home.’’

During the trial, Assistant District Attorney David Deakin sought to convince the jury that Gadson kept a loaded handgun, or allowed her older son to keep the loaded handgun in her apartment, within reach of small children.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a press release, “We put our best case forward, resolute in our belief that Liquarry Jefferson would be alive if this adult had acted as we expect any responsible parent should.’’

Jefferson found the loaded 9mm handgun in a drawer in McConnico’s room on June 24, 2007, and handed it to his cousin, who accidentally shot him. The cousin, who is now 10, testified last week, saying, “I did it by accident.’’

Gadson and McConnico initially gave investigators false accounts of how Liquarry was shot, but their separate statements had numerous inconsistencies, and within several hours after the shooting, Gadson admitted that it was her young nephew who had shot her son. She later apologized in a press conference.

She faces sentencing on the false information conviction Sept. 2.

McConnico later admitted to keeping the loaded gun in their Seaver Street home. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2008 and was in custody for about a year. Now 18, he is “living in the community,’’ said Steven Sack, his attorney, declining to specify his client’s specific whereabouts.

Brian R. Ballou can be reached at [email protected]; Maria Cramer can be reached at [email protected].

 

[rattletrap1970]

Lock the shitbag mother up,she had an illegal gun in the house ,give her a year in jail, thier is to much bullshit, no one wants to take respon.i fell so bad for the child on this.

There you go! I was going to write (almost exactly) the same thing. How about a little accountability? Oh wait, we're talking libtard infested Mass.. Nevermind.

 

[Becka]

God, this pisses me off so much. I watched the news last night and couldn't stop swearing when they said she was acquitted.
It's so ridiculous. Think about how different the news coverage would've been if it was a licensed gun owner who wanted to cover up his stupidity for letting his kid play with a loaded gun, and blamed theives for the murder?
ARGH I can't even keep thinking about this.

 

[SteelShooter]

I would be willing to bet, that, had the boy not been killed and this was a different neighborhood and only shots fired, there would be someone doing some time here. Just my .02.