An Illinois man was sentenced to six years Friday after signing a plea deal in his Griffith girlfriend’s shooting death. He said it was an accident.
Mike Lee, 24, of Riverdale, Illinois, and formerly Griffith, pleaded guilty in October to Level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm, Level 5 felony reckless homicide and an unrelated case for Level 6 felony fraud. He faced up to 12 years.
He told Griffith Police he was trying to un-jam his gun on Dec. 30 when it went off, fatally striking his girlfriend Toniesha Carter, 21, in the eye.
Deputy Prosecutor Tara Villarreal said they couldn’t prove a murder case – i.e. the shooting was on purpose.
Defense lawyer John Cantrell noted the couple hadn’t argued and Carter went into another room to charge her phone so Lee could look up a YouTube tutorial.
His “mild-mannered” client was “devastated,” the lawyer said.
Two aunts and Lee’s godmother spoke in his favor, saying he was a devoted father and wanted money to go to Carter’s funeral expenses and son.
It was an “accident” that left him “so distraught,” his aunt Annie Lee said.
Griffith Police Detective Robert Carney said it was a weapon that could pierce “body armor.”
On cross-examination, he said sometimes cops can use the same way to clear a weapon, but it’s “not the way I would do it” – in an apartment building with someone close by.
Villarreal said she didn’t dispute what his family said about his character. But Lee had nearly a dozen prior police “contacts,” which showed a “total disregard for the law.”
“Everyone knows you do not mess around with guns around other people,” she said.
No one from Carter’s family spoke at the hearing. Villarreal said Carter’s father was “very very upset” and her family was left to bury her a couple of weeks into the New Year. He was a convicted felon who was barred from owning a gun. She asked for 11 years.
Lee claimed he got the gun “to make her happy,” because she wanted to shoot it off at a New Years party. He was left “in shock” when it went off.
Why do that with a “high-caliber” weapon that you had little experience with, Judge Salvador Vasquez asked.
“It makes little sense to me at all,” the judge said.
Lee said Carter had just walked back in the room and was on the bed. He never pointed the gun in her direction.
“I wasn’t paying attention to her,” Lee said.
Griffith police responded on Dec. 30 to the 1000 block of East 35th Avenue.
A witness said she heard a gun go off. Carter was found in the fetal position on the bed in a back bedroom. The gun was next to her. She was shot in the head.
A woman took Carter to her shift at Amazon at 6 a.m. that day, but she was sent home for showing up without safety shoes. The woman said they came back and went to sleep. Around 3 p.m., she woke up and Carter came into her room to get a phone charger.
Soon after, she heard a gunshot.
Lee came to the room and said he shot Carter in the head. At first, she didn’t believe he was serious, due to his tone. When the woman asked if she was breathing, he said no. He called the cops.
The couple had arguments but none that day, she said.
The gun was an Anderson Manufacturing AR-15 multi-caliber pistol. Lee said they woke up around 1 p.m. and Carter made him food. She went to get a phone charger so he could watch a YouTube video to clear the gun.
He got one round out and thought it was empty. He bought the weapon the night before from “someone” in Illinois, the affidavit states.
In the Oct. 22, 2023, incident, Carter told police that Lee had strangled her at the same apartment.
She answered his phone and got into a heated argument with his child’s mother. After he refused to leave, Carter locked herself in the bedroom. He kicked the door open, forced her on a bed and strangled her, the affidavit states.
She declined treatment.
He was charged two days before the shooting with strangulation and misdemeanor domestic battery in that case.
mcolias@post-trib.com
