Chattanooga man receives 12-year sentence in fatal 2015 shooting
Uncooperative witnesses and unverified information helped a Chattanooga man facing a life sentence for a 2015 shooting get a reduced 12-year sentence instead, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Darreo Harris, 26, pleaded guilty in Hamilton County Criminal Court to facilitation of second-degree murder in the Jan. 1, 2015, slaying of 18-year-old Juan Boyd, who died in a Waffle House parking lot in Brainerd.
Police said surveillance video showed a suspect who matched Harris’ description run from the Waffle
House entrance and fire at a 2004 Mitsubishi Galant that Boyd had just gotten into. When he reached the car, police said, the shooter put his hand on the trunk and shot again through the back windshield.
About a week later, police said they matched that palm print to Harris and charged him with criminal homicide. A grand jury later indicted him on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a 60-year sentence in prison with the option of parole after 51 years.
The motivation wasn’t immediately clear, police said, but Harris belonged to the Kemp Drive Posse gang, while his victim, Boyd, was a Rollin 60 Crip member. The groups had been feuding, police said.
Part of the reason prosecutors agreed to “the reduction” in sentence is because they weren’t able to verify some information that witnesses initially gave to police, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Brown told Judge Barry Steelman.
Before the shooting, Boyd and the car’s driver had been spotted flashing gang signs at a gas station near Brainerd and Germantown roads, Brown said. Later, at the Waffle House, some witnesses saw the vehicle circling the parking lot for several minutes, Brown said.
Prosecutors and police were never able to verify those two pieces of information, Brown said, meaning the state would have a harder time arguing that gang affiliation played a part. Furthermore, the car’s driver, who testified that he didn’t see Boyd’s shooter and didn’t know why anyone would shoot at them, stopped cooperating with the state altogether, Brown said.
Brown said prosecutors reviewed the plea agreement with Boyd’s family, who were present Tuesday. Although they weren’t thrilled with the outcome, they understood, he said.
After the hearing, one family member declined to comment but added that Harris “could’ve got more [time] but at least he didn’t go free.”
Harris will receive credit for the nearly three years and four months he spent in custody pretrial. He has no other listed convictions or charges in Hamilton County Criminal Court and was sentenced as a range-one offender. That means he only has to serve about 30 percent of his 12-year sentence before he’s eligible for parole. When that time comes, the state could argue that he shouldn’t be released yet.
In the meantime, “Mr. Harris is grateful to get this behind him and focus on returning to his family as soon as possible,” said his defense attorney, Bill Speek.