Killer pleads for leniency, must serve at least 32 years

Kim Smith

Friday, Oct. 25, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

Cedric Flemons told a courtroom full of people Thursday not to judge him until they, too, have had a gun pointed at their heads.

In an impassioned speech in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom, Flemons, 21, pleaded for leniency in the shooting death of 19-year-old Robert Lashley.

Flemons pleaded guilty in August to first-degree murder and robbery with use of a deadly weapon.

Bonaventure had to decide if Flemons should receive a no-parole life sentence or a 20-year to life sentence. He also had to decide if the robbery sentence should run consecutively or concurrently to the life sentence.

The judge gave him 20 years to life for the murder and a consecutive sentence of 12 to 30 years for the robbery, leaving him a minimum sentence of 32 years.

According to prosecutors, Flemons got into a dispute with Lashly in December, knocked him out, shot him to death, then stole a PlayStation 2 game system.

Flemons claimed, however, that Lashley pointed a gun at his head and he shot Lashley in self-defense. He told Bonaventure Thursday he doesn't know why he took the game system and that if he could have found a way out of the situation he would have.

"I didn't want to kill him. That's the honest truth and God knows that's the truth," Flemons said. "Yeah, I acted foolish and I made bad decisions, but I don't deserve to have my whole life taken away."

Cynthia Smith, the victim's mother, said Flemons was like family and she can't understand what happened that night. She told Flemons she forgave him.

"May God have mercy on his soul today," Smith told Bonaventure.