A judge ruled on Thursday that the man accountable for the death of a mother in West Price Hill will serve a sentence of less than two years.
For his plea of guilty to the charge of reckless homicide, 24-year-old Zachary Barnhorst was sentenced to nine months by Judge Robert Goering. Goering stated that a nine-month sentence would be served concurrently for the extra specifications added to the case.
“There are no winners in this particular case,” Goering remarked. “There is nothing that the court can do to undo any of the events or to bring any more peace.”
Brandy Lawless, 44, was discovered lying on the pavement on Sunset Avenue outside of her West Price Hill home on May 3, 2023. Barnhorst was accused following her discovery. Her wound to her chest was discovered by Cincinnati police.
As per the defense lawyer for Barnhorst, he had agreed to drive a man he had met a few days before when his car’s rear window was damaged. Barnhorst stated he saw Lawless standing behind the car, holding what he believed to be a gun.
No one could have possibly thought that Lawless’s daughter was carrying a pistol that day, according to Lawless’s mother.
Exuberant at the moment. What a mess our legal system is. Charlene Huber stated following the sentencing, “They want to claim that he thought a baseball bat was a gun. She died on the sidewalk in a matter of minutes.” “We have a court system that allows him to kill her. That’s not the case, though.
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Friends claimed Lawless was a committed single mother of two who also took on many challenging cases of addiction under her wing. Her spouse passed away years before she was shot and killed.
“She assisted numerous individuals who were sobering up from drugs, she assisted numerous diverse individuals,” remarked Tamra Goodin, a childhood friend of Lawless, following her passing in 2023.
Lawless had conquered addiction in the past and used her experiences in her recovery to help others going through similar experiences, according to family and friends. The community claims that the woman killed helped save lives via recovery work.
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At Cincinnati’s Serenity Recovery Network, Lawless worked for five years as the program director as well.
“Now my daughter’s dead, her kids have no mama, no daddy and it ain’t even right,” replied Huber. “How a judge can accomplish this is beyond me. To what extent do they accept who they are? That is incorrect.
On the day that Lawless’s body was discovered, Barnhorst was taken into custody and arrested. Before entering a guilty plea in February for the lesser charge of reckless murder, Barnhorst had entered a not-guilty plea when he was first arrested on a charge of voluntary manslaughter.
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