A Hammond man was sentenced to 68 years Friday for his girlfriend’s shooting death.
Anthony Carr, 41, said he would appeal.
A jury convicted him on April 4 of 31-year-old Brittany Smith’s Dec. 3, 2022 murder.
He faced up to 85 years for the murder and habitual offender enhancement. He was sentenced to 60 years for murder and eight for the enhancement.
Smith’s mother Frances Morton-Howard said she is helping to raise her daughter’s five children, aged 12 to nearly three.
“What (he) took can’t be explained,” she said. Her smile “lit up the room.”
Carr’s lawyer Ken Elwood said any sentence would be life behind bars. He had kids, too. Elwood asked for a 53-year sentence.
Deputy Prosecutor Tara Villarreal said Carr had a handful of felony convictions, not including a 2002 attempted murder case — in the same courtroom — and 2005 murder case.
Both were dismissed, the latter for lack of witness cooperation, she said.
He was a “cold-blooded murderer” and lied about details to the cops throughout the investigation.
She asked for 70 years.
Carr gave condolences to Smith’s family and apologized to Hammond Police and prosecutors for lying in his first police interview.
He said he lied to the cops so he wouldn’t have to go through another murder case like two decades earlier.
He claimed he wasn’t given the chance to mount a “full defense” and a coroner hadn’t pinpointed Smith’s time of death.
“I’ve known you for about 20 years,” Judge Salvador Vasquez told him.
“There is no pleasure in sentencing you,” he told Carr.
The jury “looked at the evidence” and convicted him. “We honor that.”
In the past, Carr failed probation a couple times. That you’re here for murder is “sad,” the judge said. “This is where your life is.”
“I’ve known you since you were a kid,” Vasquez said. Carr was the “poster child” of what happens when “you don’t learn.”
Witnesses told police Smith had dated Carr for about 5 to 6 months. He had threatened her and kicked down her back door several weeks prior to her death.
Smith told her mom Carr left the house between 11 p.m. to 11:23 p.m. saying he’d be back.
When her mother called at 9 a.m. on Dec 3, 2022 to bring Smith’s kids back, there was no answer. The woman found her daughter’s body inside the home. Another witness, a neighbor, told police they heard gunshots between 7:30 and 8 a.m.
Carr told police he and Smith dropped off her kids at Morton-Howard’s house the night before for a “date night.” When they went back to Smith’s house, they argued and he got a friend to give him a ride. Carr claimed he partied at the friend’s house, then woke up at 6 a.m. on Dec. 3.
At first, the witness denied seeing Carr for months. When confronted, he admitted Carr showed up “looking like (expletive),” crying he was “going to jail for the rest of his life,” according to the affidavit.
Cellphone records show Carr left Smith’s house at 11:48 p.m. on Dec. 2. He called her six times between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. and his phone was back at her house between 4:45 a.m. and 7:23 a.m., according to court records.