After these gang members murdered a pregnant mother, the judge did something that literally NO ONE saw coming. People were shocked…
Two gang members who murdered a pregnant woman in a hail of gunfire in 2014 were sentenced to nothing more than 10 years in prison last week.
What’s more, one of the other convicted killers received a sentence of just seven and a half years.
De’Anthony Simmons, 27, and Kelani Brown, 29, fired as many as 30 bullets into Ervaneua Ronchelle Herring on August 17, 2014, after knocking on her door while they were searching for rival gang member DeAndrae Stephens, according to The Oregonian.
Herring, 21, was the mother of Stephens’ young child, as noted by prosecutors.
Herring was also pregnant with her second child at the time that she was murdered.
Simmons and Brown were slated to go to trial on January 10th for Herring’s murder, but that plan had been abandoned after “multiple critical witnesses” were refusing to testify “due to safety concerns,” according to Multnomah County District Mike Schmidt. In other words, they didn’t want to be the victim of a gang hit themselves.
Stephens was a Portland rapper who also went by the name of Drae Stevens and was fatally shot in December 2021. This “contributed to further concern and lack of cooperation among critical witnesses,” D.A. Schmidt wrote in his press release.
Simmons and Brown both pled guilty to first-degree burglary and second-degree manslaughter on January 7th.
Brown was given a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence, and Simmons received a 10-year sentence, according to Schmidt.
“The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office acknowledges the incredible tragedy and loss to the family of Ervaeua Herring,” he added.
The third suspect in the shooting, Jeffrey Lamont Sims, pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter in August 2019 for his role in Herrings’ murder, according to The Oregonian.
They sentenced him to 75 months in prison due to his role in the crime.
Herring’s mother was interviewed by KATU and she learned about Brown’s and Simmons’ plea agreement less than 24 hours before they were to be sentenced, and needless to say, she is furious.
The lenient sentences are nothing but a “slap on the wrist” to her.
Investigators said that at least six gunmen opened fire through the sliding back door of Herring’s Eastwood Village Apartment on Southeast Powell Boulevard in Portland the night of her death, according to the Oregonian.
This shooting occurred just hours after a Hoover gang member had been shot and two other members had been pistol-whipped during the brawl with a rival Woodland Park Bloods gang member, according to the investigators.
That is when the Hoover gang members came looking for Stephens in retaliation, but they ended up shooting the mother of his child instead.
The assailants initially “entered the wrong apartment and threatened the resident and her small children with guns,” Schmidt wrote. “Realizing their mistake, the gunmen knocked on Herring’s back door and fired approximately 30 shots into the apartment when she came to the door, killing Herring.”
Investigators said Herring was associated with gang members, but that she herself was not a gang member, The Oregonian reported. This pregnant mother deserved better.
