Lonterry Harrison Jr. sentenced to life in prison without parole in slaying of A.J. Huff
Members of A.J. Huff's family said they believed justice was served on Friday in Etowah County Circuit Court when the man accused of shooting the Gadsden teenager received the maximum sentence: life in prison without parole for a capital murder charge, and a 20-year sentence to be served consecutively for a charge of discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle.
Lonterry Orlando Harrison Jr., 22, was sentenced five years and two days after the shooting that resulted in charges against four young men and, according to Judge George Day "endangered the lives" of seven people inside a van that night with the murder victim.
Huff, 18, was fatally shot Jan. 4, 2018, at the intersection of Litchfield Avenue and Hoke Street, when two groups of young people met for a staged drug deal that, according to testimony at trial, involved deception on the part of both the would-be buyer and seller.
Witnesses and text and Facebook messages presented during the trial indicated Tyler Abbott, from his home in Hanceville, was in contact with Huff to lure him to an East Gadsden location, where others charged in the murder planned to rob him of marijuana. Other witnesses who were in the van with Huff said he intended to supply a potato in a backpack, rather than marijuana.
"For no reason whatsoever, you chose to walk up to a vehicle occupied by seven teenagers and fire into the vehicle, taking the life of A.J. Huff," Day said, "and endangering the lives of everyone in the vehicle."
One of those in the vehicle was Tristan Abigial Lightsey, Huff's girlfriend. "You took my first love, you robbed him of his future," she said, leaving her with nightmares. "I will never stop mourning A.J. and the life we could have had togther."
For Huff's mother, Angel Epps, the slaying took away her firstborn son. "Five years ago my world changed. He was my best friend, my protector, my everything," she said. "Lonterry put so much devastation and hate in my heart. I want him to wake up healthy and smiling and breathing every day, to remember that he took my son's last breath."
Huff's grandfather, Steven Epps, said he has a statement, from his heart. "You messed up your family and ours, man," he said to the defendant. "I pray that God has mercy on your soul, and that you live 100 years in the penitentiary."
LaTonya Rutledge took the stand to speak for Harrison, her son, who chose not to speak at the sentencing hearing.
"I just want to say my son is not guilty of capital murder," she said. "It should be against the law for the DA to hurt these kids with all these lies."
Because Harrison was 17 when the crime was committed, the only question in his sentence was life in prison without parole, or a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Defense attorney Michael Hanle said with a life sentence, Harrison would have to serve 30 years before he would be eligible to ask for parole. He noted the latest report from the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole, which found 37 inmates considered and 37 inmates denied release.
Even with the possibility of parole, "Mr. Harrison stands a good chance of dying in prison" from a health issue, from the drugs inmates have access to in prison or from violence.
Hanle noted studies finding that "children, such as Mr. Harrison is today, as all these children were, act without thinking."
In addition, he said there were mental health factors in Harrison's history that further affected his decision-making.
Assistant District Attorney Brynn Crain countered that Harrison had no history of severe mental illness.
"He made the conscious decision to take a gun to a robbery, to point that gun at a (van) full of teenagers and to shoot and kill A.J. Huff," Crain said. "No one forced him."
The state asked the court to impose the maximum penalty on both charges, and for the sentences to be imposed consecutively.
In the weeks after Huff's murder, five young men were charged in connection with his death: Harrison, accused of firing the gun, was indicted for capital murder; the others — Tyler Abbott, Broderick Pearson, Jessie James Altman Jr. and Kaleb Whitworth — were charged with felony murder.
In the years since, Whitworth was shot and killed while free on bond. Abbott and Pearson are awaiting trial.
Altman was convicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder, but a jury deadlocked on whether he was guilty of felony murder. Crain said the state plans to retry Altman, a former Etowah High School football standout and college prospect, on that charge.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Harrison receives maximum sentence in 2018 slaying
