The victim had arranged to buy a cellphone through the Letgo app, the outlet reported. When he arrived at the house, the owner of the cellphone was with four other people, including Gossett, who shot Calderon ‘without provocation’, according to the attorney general’s office. — Unsplash
A 19-year-old has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in connection with the 2019 shooting death of a teen who was trying to buy a cellphone, according to South Carolina prosecutors.
Da’Coreian Gossett pleaded guilty on April 10 to a count of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the killing of 15-year-old Juan Mauricio Calderon, according to a news release from the South Carolina attorney general.
Calderon, who went by “Reecy,” according to his obituary, was shot in July 2019 at a house in Spartanburg County, WSPA reported at the time.
Calderon had arranged to buy a cellphone through the Letgo app, the outlet reported.
When he arrived at the house, the owner of the cellphone was with four other people, including Gossett, according to the outlet.
Gossett, who was 15 at the time, shot Calderon “without provocation,” according to the attorney general’s office.
Calderon died days later at a hospital, according to Go Upstate.
Two of the other people there were also sentenced on April 10, according to the news release.
Takyus Hawes was sentenced to five years in prison with 15 years suspended and five years of probation on a charge of accessory after the fact, the release says. Another man was sentenced to 10 years, which was suspended to 1,355 days that he’s already served on a charge of misprision of a felony, the release says. He will not serve any more prison time but will serve five years of probation.
A suspended sentence means that the convicted person will remain out of prison as long as certain conditions are upheld. If those conditions are violated, the suspended sentence can be revoked and the original term can be imposed.
Another person who was at the scene, Shyheim Suber, pleaded guilty on Jan 26, 2022, to accessory after the fact and to one count of attempted armed robbery from an unrelated case, according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office. He was sentenced to 12 years.
Charges are pending for the owner of the phone, according to the attorney general’s office.
All five were present at the time of the shooting, but Suber and the other man sentenced April 10 remained in a car at the scene, according to the spokesman.
Jack Logan, founder of Put Down the Guns Now Young People, an organisation working to end gun violence in South Carolina, said in a video posted on Facebook that he was glad to see justice served.
Logan said he visited Calderon and his family in the hospital after the shooting.
“Watching that loving family sit there praying and hoping that little Reecy would be put back together again,” he said. “But it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen, and little Reecy died.”
Friends and family members who attended a vigil for Calderon 2019 said he was a “kind spirit” and “considerate of others at church and at school,” according to Go Upstate.
“This really hits all of us close to home,” Madison Martinez told the outlet. “He was such a loving person and this should have never happened to him.”
Spartanburg County is in northwestern South Carolina. The county seat, Spartanburg, is about 95 miles northwest of Columbia. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service
