CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati pleaded guilty to the
accidental shooting death of his 11-year-old daughter during a drunken
fight with the girl’s mother and was sentenced Wednesday to six years in
prison.
Prosecutors say Deandre Kelley, 34, was drunk on Jan. 12
when he fought with his longtime girlfriend outside their home and fired
two gunshots into the air. One bullet fatally hit their daughter,
Shanti Lanza, who had been hiding in an upstairs bedroom as the fight
unfolded during a slumber party with her friends.
In an emotional
hearing in Hamilton County court that saw the girl’s mother and aunt
arrested for contempt of court, Kelley pleaded guilty to one count of
reckless homicide. In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of
involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, and a weapons charge.
Kelley’s
attorney, Hugh McCloskey Jr., said that after talking the case over
with Judge Nadine Allen, his client realized that a six-year sentence
was the best deal he was going to get. Kelley had faced up to 20 years
in prison.
During the hearing, Shanti’s mother, Kristina Lanza,
insisted that Allen give Kelley a lighter sentence, The Cincinnati
Enquirer reported.
"I know Shanti would have forgave her daddy," Lanza told Allen. "This was a total
accident."
Allen told Lanza that was a stupid thing to say.
"Does
anybody think that guns shot in residential neighborhoods don’t go into
buildings?" Allen asked Lanza, according to the Enquirer. "You’re
saying things that are foolish."
After the hearing ended, loud
noises erupted in the hallway outside court and Shanti Lanza’s aunt,
Danielle Lott, could be heard screaming, "No justice served!" according
to the Enquirer.
That prompted Allen to call the Lanza family back
in. She then cited Lott and Kristina Lanza for contempt and ordered
them jailed, prompting another eruption of screaming from family
members, the Enquirer reported.
Prosecutors say that on Jan. 12,
Shanti was having a slumber party with several friends when Kristina
Lanza began arguing with Kelley about him bringing a gun into the home.
Lanza ordered Kelley out of the house, but he returned drunk around 3
a.m., prosecutors said.
The children, who were downstairs watching
TV while Lanza slept upstairs, opened the door for Kelley, who walked
in, turned and fired a gunshot out the front door, prosecutors say.
Shanti
then ran upstairs for her mother, who again ordered Kelley to leave.
That’s when Kelley walked out and fired two shots into the air. One of
them hit Shanti in the lung as she hid in an upstairs bedroom. She later
died at a hospital.
A distraught Kelley had petitioned to be
released from jail shortly after the shooting to attend Shanti’s
funeral. Allen turned him down, saying too many members of the public
and some relatives were too angry with Kelley to allow him to safely
attend.
Shortly after the shooting, Hamilton County prosecutor Joe
Deters said that Kelley had previously been charged three times with
domestic violence but was never prosecuted because Lanza refused to
testify.
"This is the end of the road for this enabling," Deters
said. "He needs to be in jail, and the rest of (Shanti’s family) should
be looking in the mirror for the reason this little girl is dead."
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