Just over a week after being convicted, Shainquon Sharpe and Taquashon Ray returned to court Friday morning, no longer dressed in street clothes but in jail orange, to be sentenced on three counts each of aggravated murder.
Ray and Sharpe received life prison sentences with the possibility of parole after 30 years on each of the aggravated murder charges. The sentences will be served consecutively, with 17 additional years.
Youngstown woman shot 14 times, lives to tell story
Franchelle Bonner, sister of victim 21-year-old Edward Morris, asked in a statement Friday morning if it was worth it.
“Do you truly feel that this was worth not only you going to jail, but you also won’t be able to watch your own children grow up?” she asked.
Bonner read a statement written by their mother in court. Morris, 19-year-old Valarcia Blair, and the couple’s 3-month-old son, Tariq, were killed in a shooting as they sat in a car on Youngstown, Ohio’s South Side in November 2018.
“I’m hurt. I’m angry, and I haven’t slept a full night’s sleep since my son was murdered,” Bonner read.
Valarcia’s grandmother, Lula Greene, said other family members now have the task of raising the victim’s other children.
“They need counseling now. They have nightmares. They dream about their mom and their dad,” she said.
Since Ray and Sharpe are going to appeal their convictions, neither said anything in court Friday morning, but prosecutors said they’re satisfied with the sentences, admitting this may not be the last time we hear about this murder case.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors claimed Morris was targeted for his involvement in a drug-related shooting earlier that year, but at this point, no one else has been charged.
“It was clear that there were probably other people involved, that there was a hit, and so whether something comes out of that, I guess only at this point, time will tell,” said Attorney Aaron Meikle.
Testimony in the trial began Jan. 26 and was delayed twice for weather, once because a prosecutor was ill and another time so defense attorneys could have a chance to examine cell phone evidence.
It took detectives almost a year to the day of the killings to get a grand jury indictment. They used cell phone records that they said showed Ray plotting to kill Edward Morris and Sharpe talking about buying guns.
Ray also told police he was present at the scene in a car that was parked in front of the car the victims were in. Sharpe’s DNA was found on a shell casing at the scene.
Defense attorneys stressed throughout the trial that there were no eyewitnesses that saw Sharpe at the crime scene or saw Ray with a gun at the crime scene.
For now, barring successful appeals, both Sharpe and Ray will spend the rest of their lives in prison since it will be at least 107 years before either is eligible for parole.
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