Man who killed South Oak Cliff honor student testifies he meant to shoot at her stepfather

Jeremy Lamont Warren does not deny that he shot NeQuacia Jacobs.

But he told a Dallas County jury on Monday that she was not his target. He said the bullets were for Jacobs’ stepfather. Warren hit the 18-year-old South Oak Cliff High School honorary student when he shot into her family’s home in the Highland Hills.

The jury sentenced him to 60 years in prison on Monday after Warren, 22, took a stand during his trial.

NeQuacia Jacobs’ funeral memorial book.

Warren is required by law to serve half his sentence before he can be paroled. Warren previously turned down offers to plead guilty for 30 years and then 28 years in prison.

Warren testified that Jacobs’ stepfather approached him on the street with a gun while he was having one of his young sons and demanding all of his belongings. Warren said he was pissed off and believed that if he didn’t react, he would be attacked again.

The stepfather “made me do something I didn’t want, but I had no choice,” Warren said.

Warren said he expected the man to be alone in his apartment when he shot five times in the living room window and hit NeQuacia in her chest. Her 17-year-old sister was also hit but survived. They had never met Warren before.

“I’m sorry what happened,” said Warren. “It wasn’t on purpose at all.”

Jacobs’ stepfather did not testify at the trial. Prosecutors rejected the proposal, which made Warren’s actions less serious. They pointed to Warren’s own serious robberies. Warren was on parole and was charged with at least three major robberies when he shot and killed Jacobs. Warren was arrested six months after Jacobs’ murder, and prosecutors said messages on his phone showed he had arranged several more robberies during that time.

“He wants you to think he’s not a monster because he didn’t go there to kill her. He went to kill someone else and somehow is that better? ”Prosecutor Annelise DeFrank said in closing arguments before the jury deliberated. She asked them to be at least 60 years.

Warren’s family, who testified on his behalf, told jurors that they did not excuse Warren’s murder but asked for mercy.

His grandmother, Sheila Poe, told jurors that her cocaine addiction 26 years ago caused her family to spiral downward because she failed to raise Warren’s mother properly. His mother worked two full-time jobs while raising Warren and his sisters as a single mother.

Generations of the family grew up in Highland Hills, an area that the Dallas police have marked as highly criminal, according to his family. The streets raised kids when their parents couldn’t, Warren’s grandmother said.

But prosecutors pointed out that Warren’s sisters had no problem. His twin graduated from high school and his older sister received a GED.

Defense attorney Calvin Johnson has not questioned the jury for a certain number of years. He only asked for a compassionate sentence that, if released, would give Warren a chance for rehabilitation.

“I beg you to give this man an opportunity to make amends at some point in his life,” said Johnson.

Jacobs’ mother, ShaQuaila Jacobs, and two sisters turned to Warren after his conviction about the implications of the victim. He had removed a suit he wore to the trial and was wearing a prison uniform.

ShaQuaila Jacobs said her daughter had forgiven him, but she wasn’t ready yet. The mother said she listened to Warren’s family and believed that he had a different lifestyle and could have been in the lives of his two young sons. Warren, whose own father was absent from his childhood, is removed from his two sons, who are now five and two.

ShaQuaila Jacobs berated Warren for his defense strategy, which attributed his result to the part of town he grew up in. She said she grew up in the same area of ​​Oak Cliff.

“You don’t have to be a product of your environment,” she said. “You have decided to be a product of your environment.”

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