LIMA — The second of two men charged in the 2016 shooting death of Lima resident Edward Henry was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Terry Williams, 28, was sentenced by Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed to 11 years in prison on the first-degree felony charge, which carried with it an additional mandatory three-year sentence for the use of a gun during the execution of the crime.
Williams was also sentenced to 10 years in prison on a charge of aggravated burglary in an unrelated case. Reed ordered that sentence to be served concurrently with the sentence on the manslaughter charge.
Williams in March accepted a negotiated agreement with prosecutors that capped at 14 years the maximum amount of time he could spend behind bars for his role in the Aug. 18, 2016, shooting death of Henry at the Lima Estates Apartments, 760 E. Fourth St., Lima, in what was described in court hearings as a drug turf war.
A co-defendant in the case, Devonte Andrews, was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter with a three-year gun specification. Williams in an earlier court appearance alluded to Andrews as the “shooter” who killed Henry, and Andrews reportedly accepted full responsibility for Henry’s death in a pre-sentence report prepared on behalf of Williams.
Williams was free on bond in the aggravated burglary case when the incidents that led to Henry’s death occurred. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jana Emerick said Williams fled the area following the shooting and was later discovered to be in the Detroit area.
The prosecutor asked the court to impose the maximum allowable sentence.
Williams apologized to his mother and his infant son during Monday’s hearing but told the court, “I didn’t kill anybody.” Williams said he went to the apartment complex that fateful day to “save my brother,” adding that Henry pulled a gun “and shots were fired.”
Judge Reed, expressing disgust at the seemingly endless string of gun-related cases that stream into his courtroom, told Williams, “This is like the gunfight at the OK Corral or something. Someone is dead, and someone has to be punished. There seem to be a lot of people in this community who think the way to resolve problems is with gunfire. But enough is enough.”
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