An Athens woman convicted of shooting and killing a pregnant mother in front of her 3-year-old son was sentenced Friday to two consecutive terms of life in prison.
Kiresa Shanice Cooper, 29, was convicted of malice murder and feticide in the July 2019 death of 24-year-old Auriel Callaway, the Athens Banner-Herald reported. Authorities said Callaway was a bystander when a brawl between several young women erupted in gunfire at the Clarke Garden apartments.
A 9 mm bullet pierced Callaway’s lungs and heart, a forensic pathologist testified at trial. He told the jury the woman would have died within minutes, along with her 4-month-old unborn child, the Banner-Herald reported.
Cooper took the stand on Thursday and repeatedly denied shooting Callaway, but a ballistics expert testified the bullet pulled from the woman’s body matched a gun belonging to the defendant.
Callaway’s mother, Lashunda Callaway, described her daughter as a hardworking and devoted mom who held down a full-time job while attending Athens Technical College, the newspaper reported. Her son, Mason, was holding his mother’s when she was fatally shot, investigators said.
Bystanders were already attempting CPR when authorities arrived at the complex just after 9:30 p.m., Athens police told reporters after the shooting. Investigators said Auriel Callaway was trying to move her child to safety when she was struck. She was rushed to a hospital, where she later died.
“I cannot think of a more tragic circumstance than for an innocent young mother to be gunned down in front of her residence while her young child looked on,” Athens-Clarke County police Chief Cleveland Spruill said at a news conference after the shooting.
More than 80 shell casings were recovered from the scene and multiple witnesses were detained for questioning. But Cooper, 27 at the time, was later charged after witnesses identified her as the shooter, authorities said.
She left Athens the day after the deadly shooting and went to stay at a friend’s home in Cobb County, prosecutors said. She testified at trial that she left because because people in the neighborhood were saying she killed the young mother. An Athens detective said texts later recovered from Cooper’s cellphone included messages such as “I really think I’m going to jail,” “I need to get away,” and “I need to be out of town by morning,” according to the newspaper.
Superior Court Judge Patrick Haggard imposed two consecutive life sentences, the Banner-Herald reported, one for the murder conviction and the other for feticide. Cooper, who could be eligible for parole one day, was also handed a 10-year-sentence for two counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a crime, according to the newspaper.
“Nobody sitting here will get over this,” Haggard told the families of both the defendant and the victim.
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