City woman sentenced for role in shooting
A woman who was targeted in a drive-by shooting last year shrieked outside a Butler courtroom Thursday as the driver in the shooting was sentenced to prison.
“That's not right,” Kirisa Taimuty said with a crashing sound just on the other side of the door leading to the courtroom where Mackenzie P. Peters, 23, of Butler was sentenced to 18 to 72 months in prison. Peters pleaded guilty in March to four counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of hindering apprehension for transporting another person in a car who she knew had an illegal firearm and helping that person conceal the gun from authorities.
“It's not fair,” Taimuty yelled as courthouse guards attracted by the yelling warily watched.
A Butler judge Thursday accepted a plea deal Peters' lawyer, Joseph Kecskemethy, made with the District Attorney's office in her role. Police accuse Raheem J. Robinson, 26, of shooting at Taimuty and several others, including Taimuty's 2-year-old son. Taimuty was also pregnant at the time with twins, according to court testimony.
Police also allege that a man named Jedediah Owens-Vickers in Taimuty's group fired back at Peters and Robinson. The two men face their own criminal cases that are ongoing.
Judge Timothy McCune accepted the plea deal, despite Taimuty's plea that he reject it. Taimuty made her case through a written statement that was read by someone else in front of McCune.
“Hearing anything loud terrifies me. Seeing a white car terrifies me. I know she won't be in jail for a long time and that, too, scares me,” Taimuty's statement read. “She gets to walk away with a slap on the wrist while my son has night terrors now. He was never like this before. My child isn't the same child he was a year ago. He went from being a smiling child to being afraid of his own shadow. I want my happy-go-lucky son back.”
Taimuty asked McCune to put himself in her place.
“No justice is ever going to be good enough,” Taimuty said.
Kecskemethy countered that “the plea agreement was reached after careful consideration.”
He continued, “The plea takes into consideration what the commonwealth would be able to prove and what Ms. Peters admitted to. She is admitting to exactly what she did without hesitation.”
“This was a factually difficult case. That's why I accepted the plea deal,” McCune said.
In addition to Peters' prison sentence, she will be on probation for two years.
