A Las Vegas security guard was sentenced to spend between 5 and 14 years in prison for fatally shooting a customer outside a 7-Eleven convenience store during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kegia Mitchell tearfully apologized on Thursday after she entered an Alford plea for the August 2020 death of 56-year-old Thomas Martin.
“I didn’t mean to take this man’s life, I did not,” Mitchell cried out in court. “I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart.”
The deal means she doesn’t plead guilty to the murder of Martin but acknowledges that prosecutors may have enough evidence for a conviction, according to KLAS.
Mitchell was tasked with regulating the number of customers permitted into the convenience store in Las Vegas’ northeast section on August 26 when Martin cut the line and attempted to enter.
Martin was blocked and began complaining that Mitchell was refusing to let him in while she had allowed other customers through the checkpoint.
The two began arguing as Martin cursed at the security guard, threatening Mitchell before breaking past and into the store, the outlet reported.
Mitchell grabbed the angry customer and the two shoved each other before she took out a handgun and pointed it at Martin’s face, according to security footage of the incident.
The armed security guard led Martin out of the store with her gun inches from his head.
Martin turned around and attempted to swat the gun out of Mitchell’s hands when a shot rang out.
Mitchell, who failed her first firearms safety training, was gifted the gun for Mother’s Day, according to the outlet.
She was arrested and charged with open murder.
A grand jury later indicted her for murder with a deadly weapon.
The charges were changed to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault when Mitchell signed the Alford plea in April.
Martin, a grandfather, was waiting to meet his newest granddaughter when he was killed.
“We were in the process of coming back here, you know, to let him meet the baby girl and everything, and the bad news hit,” son Brandon Martin told KLAS in September 2020.
Lawyers for Mitchell argued for parole as she had faced enormous pressure enforcing the guidelines during the pandemic.
Clark County prosecutors claimed Mitchell abused her powers at work, pointing to a separate incident 19 days before Martin’s death, where the security guard was recorded dragging a customer across the parking lot.
“How many times did we hear about 7-Eleven clerks shooting people and killing them during COVID? That wasn’t a thing — that didn’t happen. It’s isolated to Miss Mitchell because she abused her authority,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Hamner told the court, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Mr. Martin wasn’t stealing. He cut a line. And what’s outrageous about it is that when he cuts the line, it is Miss Mitchell who puts her hand on his shirt first. And the rest of the struggle is Mr. Martin saying, ‘Get off of my clothing, let me go.’ And she won’t do it … Miss Mitchell ramps it up a whole other level. She pulls out a loaded gun, and she puts it to the side of his face,” Hamner added.
Clark County District Court Judge Tierra Jones said the decision was complicated.
“It’s not what took place in the store that’s the biggest issue,” Jones said. “It’s what took place outside the store that’s the biggest issue.”
Brandon Martin celebrated the sentencing, saying that his father received justice following the sentencing.
“JUSTICE FOR MY DAD(TOMMY MARTIN)…..REST IN HEAVEN DAD WE GOT HER TODAY, IT WONT TAKE THE PAIN AWAY OF LOSING YOU BUT AT LEAST SHE’S FINALLY GOING AWAY AFTER 5 YEARS…..LOVE AND MISS YOU…..HE WAS ONE HAMMAH WAS NOT AFRAID OF THAT GUN, SWATTED IT AWAY ATLEAST 5 TIMES,” Brandon Martin wrote on Facebook.
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