ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - A Lima man is sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for a 2021 shooting that left one man dead.
34-year-old Demarco Morris was sentenced on the charges of murder and felonious assault for an incident that killed Davion Latson and his father injured. According to prosecutors, Latson drove up to a Perry Street home on September 5, 2021, to find out what happened to his father who was injured at the home earlier in the day. Morris shot at the vehicle which sped off and crashed. Police found Latson dead from his gunshot injuries.
"Like so many deaths in and around Lima, this is a situation, where it was started with words, escalated to fists and it was finished with a firearm," says Kyle Thines, Chief Allen Co. Assistant Prosecutor.
"Little did I know when I gave birth to Davion and I heard him take his first breath, that 25 years later, I would hear him take his last," says Jennifer Stewart, Davion's mother. "No mother should have to live through that. I hurt every day knowing that I cannot protect my son from this. Sending my son to pick up his Dad who had been assaulted should not have ended his life."
Morris still contends that he shot at Latson out of fear for the safety of his kids.
"It's all about accountability. Yes I take accountability for what I did, it was wrong," says Morris. "Like I said I lost a child, I buried my son too. That's why I did what I did, I wasn't willing to lose another one. I would rather spend the rest of my life behind bars, than bury another kid in the dirt."
"Even if, let's assume that what you said was true Mr. Morris, if you thought somebody had the potential to come back and shoot things up and you have little kids out there and it wasn't even your house, gather them up and get going," says Judge Terri Kohlrieser, Allen County Common Pleas Court. "That's what you should have done, not called somebody to bring over a gun, not gotten a gun out yourself."
Morris has the right to appeal the jury's verdict and the judge's sentencing in the case.
