OAKLAND (BCN) — A 34-year-old woman with a history of dating teenage boys was sentenced Friday to 16 years to life in state prison for her second-degree murder conviction for her role in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old man in West Oakland four years ago.
According to prosecutor Glenn Kim, Laquisha Allen ordered her son, Douglas Andrews, who was only 15 at the time, and 18-year-old Tommy Lacy III to shoot Marjon Fuller in the 1600 block of 11th Street in West Oakland at about 7:20 p.m. on July 6, 2012, because she thought Fuller was responsible for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jah-Kwan Smith in Stockton the previous week.
Kim said Allen and Smith had a sexual relationship and were a couple because she still has a tattoo of Smith’s name on her neck. But he said Allen also had sexual relationships with Lacy and several other teenagers.
Kim said Allen, who lived in Stockton but had family and friends in West Oakland, rented a car and had Lacy and her son accompany her to West Oakland, where she drove at speeds of up to 85 miles per hour before they spotted Fuller outside a corner store.
He said Allen then ordered the teenagers, who were both armed with guns, to get out of the car and shoot Fuller.
Kim said Lacy and Andrews confronted Fuller but in an exchange of gunfire Lacy was shot and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Although Allen didn’t get out of her rental car and didn’t fire any shots, she was charged under the provocative act doctrine, which holds that a suspect can be charged with murder if she engages in reckless or
dangerous conduct that provokes a victim to shoot in self-defense and kill someone else.
Allen’s attorney, Ted Johnson, told jurors in her trial earlier this year that Allen should be acquitted or only convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter because he thinks there is reasonable doubt since many questions in the case remain unanswered, such as who fatally shot Lacy.
Fuller, who was 18 at the time, wasn’t injured in the shooting but was killed in a separate drive-by shooting at the same corner two years later at 9 a.m. on April 16, 2014, when he was 20.
Kim said it’s never been determined who fired the shot that killed Lacy but said for the purpose of Allen’s case that doesn’t matter because he believes she bears legal responsibility for Lacy’s death.
Andrews, Allen’s son, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to charges stemming from Fuller’s death and testified during her trial that Allen didn’t have anything to do with the shooting.
No one from Lacy’s family showed up to speak at Allen’s hearing Friday.
Allen, who was convicted back on March 4 and was sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer, is a friend of convicted double-murderer Darnell Williams, according to testimony in the penalty phase of Williams’ trial, which is being held in the courtroom of Judge Jeffrey Horner across the hall from Hymer’s courtroom.
Williams, a 25-year-old Oakland man, was convicted on May 6 of two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting death of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine at an apartment in the 3400 block of Wilson Avenue in Oakland at about 11:15 p.m. on July 17, 2013, and the unrelated fatal shooting of Medearis in the 1400 block of Eighth Street in Berkeley about seven weeks later at about 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2013.
Under questioning by the prosecutor in that case, John Brouhard, earlier this week, Williams’ mother, Sheila Smith, admitted that she mailed letters from Williams to Allen, even though it’s against jail rules for inmates to send letters to one another.
Smith said she didn’t know it was against jail rules for her to send letters on Williams’ behalf to other inmates.
The nature of Williams’ friendship with Allen wasn’t disclosed.
In the penalty phase of Williams’ trial, which will conclude with closing arguments on Tuesday, jurors will choose between recommending the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.