SCHENECTADY — Three men charged in connection to the killing of an innocent woman who was shot in the parking lot of an after-hours nightspot in the summer of 2020 were sentenced Monday for their roles in the slaying.
Defendants Warren Cusaac, 34, and Dasaun Parsons, 25, received 8 years behind bars each as part of an agreement where the pair previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the slaying of Ieasha Merritt, 34.
The mother of a teenage boy, Merritt was not the intended target of the gunmen.
Merritt was out celebrating the Fourth of July holiday when she was shot and wounded after several shooters emerged from a parked car and opened fire while aiming for a man with whom they had a disagreement. She died at the hospital five days after being shot.
Under the terms of the plea deal in both cases, Assistant District Attorney Peter Willis on Monday vacated an attempted murder charge, leaving in place the gun offense to which the two pleaded guilty and were sentenced. Their third accomplice, Xzobiaire Green, 19, also was sentenced on a gun charge after an attempted murder charge was vacated.
Green apologized to Merritt’s family, none of whom were in court for the proceedings, and received 6 years in prison.
Prosecutor Peter Willis read a victim impact statement from Merritt’s mother, Shanta Merritt.
In it, she wrote that she hoped the three defendants would get the maximum sentence and that the decisions they made were heartless and robbed her of her oldest child.
“You three stole a piece of me that will never be replaced,” Willis read from the statement.
Shanta Merritt has previously told the Times Union that her 19-year-old son, Daryl Adams, was fatally shot in Queens in 2012. Police arrested two men immediately after that shooting and…
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