Burger King coworker who fatally shot 16-year-old Niesha Harris-Brazell gets probation
The Burger King employee who accidentally shot and killed 16-year-old cashier Niesha Harris-Brazell during a staged robbery was sentenced to probation Friday.
All parties present at Derrick D. Ellis’ sentencing hearing agreed the 35-year-old had no intention of hurting Harris-Brazell and was only trying to protect her from an apparent robber leaning through a drive-thru window and waving a gun around.
All parties seemed to understand that Ellis, a convicted felon originally from Michigan, felt compelled to bring the gun to the restaurant for a late-night closing shift because of unsafe working conditions.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Mark Sanders kept coming back to those details as he weighed his decision. But every time, he reminded Ellis he was not supposed to have the gun in the first place.
“If you did not have that gun, you could not have pulled that trigger,” Sanders told Ellis.
Ultimately, Sanders accepted the recommendation of prosecutors. He stayed a five-year prison sentence in favor of placing Ellis on four years of probation and requiring him to spend 12 months in the House of Corrections.
The stayed prison sentence means that if Ellis violates the conditions of his probation, he will serve that prison sentence and spend another five years under extended supervision afterward.
One of those conditions is to not possess any weapons.
“No guns, no knives, don’t even possess a pointy stick,” Sanders said.
Harris-Brazell was a student at Casimir Pulaski High School who had been working at the restaurant for less than six months at the time of the shooting on Jan. 2. The business, at 5120 W. Capitol Drive, has since been shut down by the city.
Ellis is one of two people charged in the incident. Court filings repeated claims from the other defendant, Antoine Z. Edwards, and his daughter — who also worked at the Burger King — that Harris-Brazell was in on a plot to stage a robbery that night.
But Harris-Brazell’s family has vehemently denied that was the case, and in Friday’s hearing, Assistant District Attorney Michael Lonski said he did not believe Harris-Brazell was actually in on the plan, as evidenced by Harris-Brazell never handing over money to the gunman in the window.
Prosecutors have filed a felony murder charge against Edwards, 41. The plan, he and his daughter told investigators, involved Edwards demanding money from the drive-thru window, where Harris-Brazell was stationed with a cash register, court records said.
Ellis, who also worked at the restaurant but was not involved in the plot, was known to bring a gun to work. When the apparent robber leaned through the window with a gun, Harris-Brazell hesitated to hand over cash and alerted coworkers to what was happening.
Ellis then peered around a door and fired from about 20 feet away, accidentally hitting and killing Harris-Brazell. He then asked another coworker to hide his gun in a safe.
Ellis reached a plea deal with prosecutors in April. He pleaded guilty to felon in possession of a firearm by an out-of-state convicted felon. In exchange, prosecutors moved to dismiss a charge of homicide by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon.
Both charges came with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
In brief remarks Friday, Ellis apologized for his actions and asked for forgiveness.
“I’m truly sorry,” he said. “I really didn’t mean for this to happen. I was just trying to protect everybody that was there with me. Everybody that was there was like my family.
“I dream about it every day, every night. Can’t eat, can’t sleep.”
Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Shooter in Burger King incident that killed 16-year-old gets probation
