Man convicted as juvenile resentenced in 2009 death of college student
When Lamon Street killed Shavaughn Wallace as she sat inside a parked car on the North Side in May 2009, he was 17 years, 11 months and 3 days old.
At trial in 2012, he was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing the 18-year-old college student, as well as her unborn baby.
Street was ordered to serve life in prison with no chance for parole.
However, because he was still a juvenile at the time of the crime, Street was entitled to another sentencing hearing, based on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama, which ruled that mandatory life was unconstitutional for juveniles.
On Thursday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman reduced Street’s sentence to two consecutive, 30-year prison terms, with a maximum of life.
Before reaching his decision, the judge heard testimony from Street’s fiancee and grandmother, who told him that the young man has changed in prison — that he no longer surrounds himself with negative influences, that he is taking college classes and has “given himself to God.”
Defense attorney Jacob McCrea asked that his client be sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life.
Even if Street, now 28, was paroled at 20 years, Mr. McCrea argued, he also must serve a 10-year federal prison sentence for drug trafficking.
However, Deputy District Attorney Ron Wabby argued that Street should be sentenced to a total of 60 years, representing both deaths.
Ms. Wallace, 18, was shot and killed on May 22, 2009, as she sat inside a car talking with friends on Alpine Street.
She was a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and was four months pregnant when she died.
Ms. Wallace’s mother, Carla GainesRobinson, described her daughter in court Thursday as bright and outgoing, who always found the positive in the world.
“She loved to sing and dance from a very young age,” she said. “The arts came naturally to her.”
It wasn’t until her daughter was killed, Ms. Robinson said, that she learned the world could be so cruel.
“I never thought you could die for dating the wrong guy,” she said.
According to court records, Ms. Wallace was dating a man who was in the gang, Hoodtown Mafia, a rival gang to Street’s, who was a member of the Brighton Place Crips.
The night of her death, she was with her boyfriend on Alpine Street talking to a group of people, when Street began firing into the crowd.
He was arrested two months later.
In a statement to the judge, Street said that when he was originally in court on these charges he was still a child.
“I didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation,” he said.
Street said he keeps a copy of a letter Ms. Robinson wrote to the court in 2015 in his cell and reads it almost every day.
“She has a beautiful family, and not a day goes past I don’t think about it — that I’m the face
of that pain,” he said. “I’m taking the first steps in a long journey to try to make amends.”
In advocating for a lesser sentence, Mr. McCrea told Judge Cashman that Street grew up in a dysfunctional family, and according to court records, he was riding on his uncle’s back, around age 7 or 8, when the man was shot.
Then, as a teen, a father figure in his life was shot and killed.
Judge Cashman was unswayed by Street’s background. “It’s only now, when you’re looking at a possible reduction in sentence you look to express your level of responsibility,” he said. “I think it’s a little too late.”
In ordering the total, 60year prison sentence, the judge cited the defendant’s criminal history, including multiple gun counts, as well as his history selling drugs.
“Why somebody sitting in a car doing nothing should be harmed is beyond me.”