After giving his niece the gun that fatally shot Endia Martin, Donnell Flora has been sentenced to 100 years in prison for her murder. Martin, a 14-year-old girl, was shot in the back in a fight over a boy.
The schoolgirl dispute heated up when Martin’s best friend, Lanekia Reynolds, posted death threats towards Flora’s niece on Facebook. Although Reynolds later testified she was never planning on following through with her death threat, the Facebook post stated, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to put you in the ground next to your dad.”
That’s pretty harsh—but what happened next is even worse. The girls agreed to settle their differences at a Chicago home. Since his brother’s death, Flora had been a father-like figure to his niece. Instead of trying to diffuse the situation though, when the teen came to a then 25-year-old Flora to tell him she was going over to Martin’s house for the fight, he grabbed his .38 caliber handgun and accompanied his niece.
On April 28, 2014, Flora’s niece showed up to a Chicago home with a group of at least 40 other people to fight Martin. Flora claimed he brought the gun to protect himself and his niece, but ultimately ended up handing the gun over to his niece.
Flora was sentenced to 65 years in prison for the murder of Martin, plus an additional 35 years for the attempted murder of the other Reynolds. Flora’s niece is currently awaiting trial in Cook County Juvenile Court.
Is a 100-year sentence Too Harsh For a Man Who Didn’t Pull the Trigger?
At first glance, it seems a bit harsh to sentence someone who didn’t pull the trigger to 100 years in prison. Is supplying the gun enough to be charged with murder even though Flora was essentially just an accomplice to the crime? The prosecution argued Flora knew exactly what he was doing when he handed over the gun and knew exactly what the teen was planning on doing with it.
Let’s take a look at Illinois’ 1st degree murder law that’s relevant to this case:
- The state must show the defendant killed an individual without lawful justification and either:
- Intended to kill or do great bodily harm to that individual (or knew that the act would do so); or
- Knows that the acts create a strong probability of causing death or great bodily harm to the individual
Now, let’s see what accomplice liability means in Illinois:
- A person is legally accountable for another person’s criminal conduct if:
- The companion has the specified intent to commit the crime and the companion compels or forces another legally non-consenting person to commit the crime;
- The statute defining the criminal offense also makes the companion accountable; or
- Either before or during the commission of the offense (that the companion intended), the companion solicits, aids, abets, agrees or attempts to aid the other, acting person in planning or commission of the offense.
Under Illinois law, it doesn’t matter whether Flora pulled the trigger. Flora was legally accountable for the criminal actions of his niece the minute he handed her the gun knowing she intended to fight Martin with it.
Flora’s attorney argued that the 100-year sentence was excessive because Flora “didn’t intend that anybody be killed or hurt.” Flora testified that he handed the gun to his niece and told her to give the gun to his cousin, Vandetta Redwood. However, Redwood stated Flora encouraged the violent act by telling his niece to “Shoot the bitch.”
Not only had Flora been previously shot and paralyzed from the waist down, but his brother had been shot and killed in the past. It seems hard to fathom that a person affected so heavily by gun violence in his family, at the very least, didn’t know what would happen by bringing a gun to a fight.
What Contributed to the Long Sentence?
The sentencing range for 1st degree murder is 20-60 years. However, 25 years can be added onto the sentence for discharging a firearm and, if convicted of actually pulling the trigger and killing a victim, the defendant can get life in prison. Attempted murder sentencing ranges are between 6 to 30 years, but the sentence can increase if a firearm is used.
Flora received an additional 10 years because the murder involved a firearm. At Flora’s sentencing hearing, Judge Thaddeus Wilson told him, “There is no excuse or rationalization for giving a child a gun to take to a ridiculous fight about a boy – none.”
Authored by Ashley Roncevic, LegalMatch Legal Writer and Attorney at Law
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