Columbus teen sentenced for killing 16-year-old girl at Wilson Homes

Nineteen-year-old Lernard “Baby” Bonner could be in his 40s when he’s finally done serving time for fatally shooting sometimes girlfriend Lakeisha Moses in the face at Columbus’ Wilson Homes apartments.

Superior Court Judge Ben Land sentenced Bonner to life in prison with the possibility of parole Thursday, and that typically means a defendant serves 30 years before he’s eligible for release.

A jury Friday convicted Bonner of involuntary manslaughter, felony murder for killing Moses while committing the felony of aggravated assault, and aggravated assault.

Land decided that under Georgia law, he could not sentence Bonner for both manslaughter and felony murder in a case involving a single death, and the aggravated assault and murder charges would have to merge into one count of murder, as both were based on the same act.

Bonner will get credit for the time he already has spent in jail awaiting trial. He was arrested June 2, 2016, the day after Moses died from a gunshot wound to the face.

The prosecution maintained Bonner shot Moses intentionally. The defense claimed it was only a tragic accident.

Defense attorney Nancy Miller said the jury’s choosing to find Bonner guilty of the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter instead of malice or intentional murder proves jurors didn’t believe Bonner meant to shoot Moses.

“I want to make it clear that this was something Mr. Bonner never wanted to happen,” she said after the sentencing. “This was actually a horrible accident, and we hope both families can move forward from it in a way that they find peace, and whatever they need. But again, it’s a horrible accident, and it’s tragic for both families.”

Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly said Bonner’s convictions for aggravated assault and felony murder contradict Miller’s view, proving jurors must have believed “he intended to fire the gun.”

“I think there’s a distinction there, because the aggravated assault had to have intent,” he said.

Moses’ family did not see Bonner’s shooting Moses as merely a mistake.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” Moses’ sister Shondrea Reese told Land before Bonner’s sentencing, “but no one makes a mistake when a person’s life has been taken.”

The jury delivered the verdict April 13 after two hours and 45 minutes’ deliberation, but the judge and attorneys had to weigh whether the crimes were in conflict, because of the distinction in intent between involuntary manslaughter and felony murder based on aggravated assault.

Land decided then that the most recent Georgia Supreme Court precedent allowed the verdict if the offenses were based on separate underlying acts, and the involuntary manslaughter charge was predicated on Bonner’s breaking the law against anyone under 21 having a handgun. Bonner was 17 at the time.

The evidence

During testimony last week, witnesses said Bonner was in an apartment bedroom with Moses and a 4-year-old girl when a gun went off, and the little girl came running down the hall saying, “Baby shot my auntie.”

The girl thought of Moses, 16, as her auntie because Moses so often babysat for Sakima Grier, the 4-year-old’s mother and the apartment resident. Grier said she put the little girl in a room with her other children and went to investigate. Before she got to the bedroom, Bonner grabbed her in the hall and said, “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”

As she went down the hall, he fled. When Grier walked into the bedroom, she saw Moses lying on the bed, bleeding from her face.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly said the .38-caliber bullet hit Moses in the left jaw and continued on, fracturing her skull and penetrating her brain, where it lodged. She was pronounced dead at the hospital at at 10:57 a.m. July 1, 2016. Bonner surrendered to police about 3 p.m. the next day.

Moses did not live at Wilson Homes, but sometimes stayed there overnight to help care for Grier’s children. Grier had known Moses since the teen was 7 or 8 years old, Kelly said.

Grier that morning first discovered Bonner was in her apartment when she looked in the bedroom and saw Bonner and Moses asleep. Around 9 a.m., Grier learned the children’s daycare would be closed that day, so she went to tell Moses.

When she walked in, she saw Moses lying awake beside Bonner, who sat on the bed holding a revolver. She told him she didn’t want a loaded gun in her home where her children might find it.

She said Bonner unloaded the weapon, placing the bullets on a windowsill, and put the revolver under his pillow. Planning to take her kids shopping, Grier left the room to get them ready.

About 20 minutes later, she heard what she at first assumed was a firecracker, before her 4-year-old came down the hall. After finding Moses bleeding in the bed, Grier called 911 at 9:23 a.m.

The arguments

In closing arguments Friday morning, attorneys sparred over whether the evidence proved Bonner shot Moses intentionally.

Kelly alleged this sequence was obvious from the evidence: Bonner must have reloaded the gun after Grier left the room, pointed it at Moses and purposefully pulled the trigger all the way, else the revolver would not have fired.

A medical examiner recovered the bullet from Moses’ head, and police found a live .38-caliber round in the bedroom. A ballistics expert testified the bullet came from one of three brands of revolver, a Smith & Wesson, a Ruger or a Taurus. Each has a safety feature that requires the trigger be fully depressed to fire the weapon.

If the gun’s hammer has not been cocked manually, pulling the trigger requires seven to nine pounds of pressure, Kelly said. Three pounds of pressure are necessary if the hammer’s cocked.

Defense attorney Nancy Miller told jurors the prosecution didn’t have the gun, and much of the state’s case was based on “speculation.”

That didn’t prove Bonner’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, she told them: “You can’t make assumptions. You can’t speculate.”

It was Bonner’s fault that authorities never found the gun, which he must have discarded where it would not be found, Kelly said: “He got rid of the gun…. We didn’t fail to present the evidence. He destroyed the evidence.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Columbus teen sentenced for killing 16-year-old girl at Wilson Homes."