Pa. man whose 4-year-old stepdaughter accidentally killed herself with his loaded gun loses ...

[left-of-center2012]

Pa. man whose 4-year-old stepdaughter accidentally killed herself with his loaded gun loses bid to shorten prison term

A Pennsylvania man whose 4-year-old stepdaughter accidentally killed herself with a loaded handgun he left in a closet will stay behind bars after a state court denied his appeal of a prison term insisted is excessive.
Demetrius Williams wasn’t supposed to have a gun at all. He is a convicted felon.

Police said the little girl, Sani Holmes, died after she found the loaded pistol in a closet in a bedroom of her family’s Philadelphia home in June 2016. She was looking down the barrel of the weapon when she pulled the trigger, investigators said.

Williams, now 31, was sentenced to 9 ½ to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, weapons charges and child endangerment, Judge Maria McLaughlin noted in the Superior Court opinion denying Williams’ appeal.

Williams claimed in that appeal that he was over-sentenced because the Philly judge ran the prison terms for his manslaughter and weapons charges consecutively. He claimed that judge relied too heavily on
his criminal history, including multiple past weapons charges, in choosing his punishment. In disagreeing, Judge McLaughlin found the consecutive sentences are justified because the involuntary manslaughter and the weapons count are entirely different crimes.

https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2021/09/pa-man-whose-4-year-old-stepdaughter-accidentally-killed-herself-with-his-loaded-gun-loses-bid-to-shorten-prison-term.html

[MenloParque]

1. Loaded weapon in a closet with minors in the house.

When you wanna be a badass gangsta but too cheap and stupid to have a weapons safe. Sorry bud you gonna stay in the joint for a long time due to your negligence. I don’t think he cares though with those dead psychotic eyes.

[FakeNoose]

2. He's a convicted felon with previous weapons convictions

He should not have even had a gun at all. How did he get the gun?

Whoever sold him that gun - the one that killed the little girl - broke the law by selling it to a convicted felon. What about those background searches that are supposed to prevent this from happening?

[CozyMystery]

3. They get guns from illegal sources. nt