A Baton Rouge man who shot and killed a father of three during an August 2020 incident near Zion City was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday.
Derrick Jermaine Holmes Jr., 24, pleaded guilty to the charge as part of a negotiated deal his attorney reached with prosecutors. He was originally indicted with second-degree murder and faced a mandatory life sentence in the slaying of Donald Ray Carlton Sr. He agreed to plea to the lesser charge in exchange for the reduced sentence.
Carlton, 66, was shot as he sat in his Ford F-150 in the 5200 block of Greenwell Street the afternoon of Aug. 14, 2020. He was taken to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where he died.
Prosecutors said Holmes fired a single gunshot at Carlton’s vehicle that struck him in the left side before the bullet exited out of the right side of his body. Surveillance footage in the residential block captured Holmes firing into the vehicle, according to testimony at his plea hearing Monday.
“It seems so unfair that we have to suffer so much for Mr. Holmes’ heinous actions. He took my father’s life with zero regard for his value,” Rachel Carlton, one of the victim’s three children, said moments before District Judge Gail Horne Ray handed down the 30-year sentence. “Every day, the events of his death replay in my mind. The thought of you leaving him there by himself to die… is the most horrible thing you could’ve done to him. He had no chance whatsoever of surviving. We never got to say goodbye to him.”
Police initially said the shooting stemmed from a robbery.
LaShanta Williams, 22, was charged as an accessory after the fact to the fatal shooting. According to arrest reports, she was in the car with Donald Carlton when he was shot. She told investigators he came to pick her up from her home in the 5600 block of Winchester Street and they had plans to go to a hotel together.
However, before they could leave, Holmes circled the block twice in a Nissan Maxima before walking up to Carlton’s truck, pulling out a pistol and shooting at the vehicle.
Williams told detectives she hopped out of the pickup after it rolled into a ditch and ran into her house. Holmes came to her door minutes later and ordered her to return to the truck to retrieve her phone and some of Carlton’s belongings. She said she grabbed the victim’s phone and wallet from the center console and Holmes threw both items in the trash at a nearby gas station.
Williams told officers when she asked Holmes why he shot Carlton, he said “I’m thinking you with somebody else,” according to the arrest report.
Williams’ case remains ongoing, she’s set to appear before Judge Ray in November.