Victim's family outraged by sentencing in murder case
Jun. 9—Wails, sobs, screams and expletives filled the hallways of the Ector County Courthouse Friday afternoon after a jury sentenced a Mississippi man to five years in prison for murdering an Odessa mother of four.
The family of Erika Peña are furious Shemar Harrington, 22, could be paroled in as little as 2.5 years after murdering their loved one.
The jury had the option of sending Harrington to prison for life or sending him away for anywhere from five years to 99 years.
"This isn't justice," several family members cried after court was adjourned and Harrington's brother and the jurors were escorted to their cars by law enforcement.
"What the (expletive) is going on?" one of Peña's brothers shouted. "He shook his lawyer's hand and smiled."
"I'm so angry. I lost my little girl. I just don't understand. I just don't understand," Peña's mother, Cindy Hatfield-Yeoman sobbed, as others tried to comfort her 80-year-old mother.
Peña's 13-year-old son, Michael, kept sobbing the same question over and over, "Five years? Five years?"
It took the jury of nine men and three women about 90 minutes to determine Harrington's fate.
It took them three hours Thursday to convict Harrington of murder in Peña's death, and to acquit him of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the shooting of LaPaul Scaggs.
During the week-long trial in the 70th Ector County District Court, jurors heard Peña was shot while standing between Scaggs and Harrington as she tried to defuse an argument between the two men at the Southwest Oaks apartments on May 29, 2022. Scaggs was shot in the arm. The same bullet traveled all the way through Peña's torso, striking several organs and causing her to bleed out.
Harrington testified he shot Scaggs in self-defense believing Scaggs was about to shoot him with the same gun he'd brandished and threatened him with a few minutes earlier. He told jurors Scaggs was upset with him because he erroneously believed he had recorded a heavily intoxicated Scaggs on his cellphone while in Peña's bedroom.
Prosecutors Rikki Earnest and Elizabeth Howard reminded jurors during their closing arguments zero witnesses saw a gun in Scaggs' hands immediately before Peña was shot or even afterward.
During Friday's punishment phase, Peña's best friend of 10 years, Angelique Vasquez, told jurors Peña was the glue that held her family together. She left behind her four children, Michael, Aryana, Uriah and ReyAnna. She is also survived by her parents, grandmothers and brothers, all of whom attended the trial.
Vasquez described Peña as an outspoken, loving, loyal and giving woman with a "loud, boisterous, annoying" laugh. They could look at each other and know what the other was thinking, often finishing each other's thoughts and sentences, she said. Her children thought of Peña as their aunt and Peña's children thought of her as their aunt.
Defense attorney Phillip Wildman asked the jurors to consider his client's age when determining his sentencing. At that age, Harrington lacked maturity, didn't have a lot of life experience and didn't know himself well, Wildman said.
"It's not justice to sign Verdict Form One for life," Wildman said.
Howard asked the jury to start their discussions at 31 years, the length of time Peña lived.
During his testimony Harrington spoke about how his world was turned upside down, but what about Peña and her family and friends? Howard asked.
"Yeah, the defendant's world has changed, but Erika's life is gone," Howard said.
Howard spoke of the many special moments and milestones Peña's children and other family members will not get with her, as her family wiped tears from their eyes in the gallery behind her.
Showing a photo of Aryana standing before her mother's open casket, Howard told jurors that will be a memory all of her children will live with forever.
After the jurors were excused, Judge Denn Whalen listened to victim impact statements from Michael, Peña's eldest son, and her mother.
In between sobs, Michael told Harrington he took his world from him and said he didn't deserve to walk this planet. He questioned how Harrington could have killed his mom when she considered him family since he was friends with her boyfriend, another Mississippi native who came to Odessa to work. He called Harrington a coward and his sentence "crazy."
In an equally emotional state, Hatfield-Yeoman told Harrington he "shattered" their family, which is far larger than the courtroom could accommodate. All of her grandchildren, now 13, 10, 8 and 5, have been separated and are now living with their fathers.
"It's not fair when they were together their entire lives and now they're not together to hug and hold each other everyday and to be there for each other," she said.
She railed at Harrington for showing no remorse and for purposely making eye contact throughout the trial with her and one of her sons.
"This is not a joke. This was her life," she said.
Her daughter thought of him as family and she was killed trying to keep him out of trouble and safe from harm, Hatfield-Yeoman told Harrington.
She said Harrington didn't deserve to get out of prison ever, let alone five years or two and a half years.
She said her daughter's memory will never be forgotten and vowed to make sure Harrington will never forget her either.
