Orlando mother whose child killed woman gets 5-year sentence
The mother of a 10-year-old who shot and killed their neighbor during an argument was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison.
Lakrisha Isaac, 33, was sentenced on charges of manslaughter and culpable negligence in the May 2022 killing of 41-year-old Lashun Rodgers, amid complaints from Rodgers’ family that the penalties were far too light.
The Memorial Day shooting stemmed from a post Rodgers had made on social media, according to an arrest affidavit. Isaac confronted Rodgers over the post at the apartment complex on Mercy Drive where they both lived.
Isaac passed her backpack, containing a loaded gun, to her then-10-year-old daughter. A fight ensued between the two women, with neighbors saying Isaac threw the first punch. The child eventually pulled the gun out of the backpack and shot Rodgers twice, hitting her in the head, before reportedly yelling “She shouldn’t have hit my momma.”
Isaac and her daughter went back inside their apartment while Rodgers was left bleeding on the floor. Neighbors called emergency personnel, who transported Rodgers to the hospital, where she died from her injuries.
The sentencing comes amid a national debate on charging the parents of minors involved in gun crimes. The most prominent such case was that of 15-year-old school shooter Ethan Crumbley in Michigan, whose parents were each convicted of involuntary manslaughter in separate proceedings.
Several of Rodgers’ family members tearfully spoke during Isaac’s Friday hearing.
“My smile, my real laugh, my daily routine is gone,” said Ashia Johnson, the victim’s daughter. “So suddenly taken by someone for nothing, someone we gave food and popsicles to out of our home.”
“Just know if I was there, the circumstances would have been different,” she said.
The terms of the sentencing had been agreed upon in a May plea deal with prosecutors. The victim’s sister, Sharetta Rodgers, said the plea deal did not satisfy her.
“The slap on the wrist and the pat on the back that the court has given you today is not okay, she said. “It’s not okay to take a life and this is not justified. And this is not justice for Lashun Rodgers.”
The victim’s mother, Laura Chambliss, recounted how she had seen and spoken to her daughter the same day of the shooting.
“I received my last call from Lashun, telling me, again, she loved me,” she said. “Hours later I got a call. ‘Ms. Laura, they killed Lashun.’”
She said she could forgive Isaac and her daughter, but will never forget.
Isaac did not speak on her own behalf during the hearing.
The judge granted Isaac 128 days time served. She will also have to serve three years probation, take a four-hour parenting course and seek evaluation and treatment for substance abuse.
