A Merrillville woman was sentenced to a three-year term Wednesday for fatally shooting her husband during a fight on her 40th birthday.
Nakeyia Anderson, now 43, was convicted in November of reckless homicide, a Level 5 felony, in the July 18, 2021, fatal shooting of Tihomas Anderson, 44.
Her sentence is two years in prison with one year on probation. Her lawyer said she would appeal. She faced one to six years.
Tihomas Anderson’s sisters spoke of their grief and betrayal.
“My brother is the victim, not her,” said his sister Nakea Anderson. “She shot him.”
“I just want her to go to prison” and “think about what she did,” she said.
Nakeyia Anderson’s defense lawyer Scott King asked for his client to avoid prison. The shooting was not premeditated and she did everything after the fact to cooperate with police, he said.
They had gone out to a club but back home, the evening turned into an “absolute nightmare.” King said. The gun went off during a “struggle” over it in the car.
Deputy Prosecutor Tara Villarreal said the shooting “could have been avoided altogether.” It was her gun in the fight, his weapon was upstairs in a bedroom closet, she said.
“He did not deserve to be killed by his own wife,” Villarreal said.
She asked for five years in prison.
Nakeyia Anderson read from a letter detailing how she and her husband met and married.
My “heart is destroyed inside and out,” she said, calling it a “tragic accident.”
Judge Salvador Vasquez noted the jury was given instructions, including the option to decide that she was only “negligent” in the shooting. They declined.
However, she had no real prior criminal record. It wasn’t a “maximum” case, Vasquez told Tihomas Anderson’s relatives. A six-year term would probably get overturned on appeal, he said.
After the sentence, King asked if she could get out on bond for two weeks to make arrangements to get a new “caregiver” for her adult child.
Villarreal objected, saying she was convicted three months earlier. Vasquez denied his request.
Merrillville Police were called that night to the 5900 block of Harrison Street, where they found Tihomas Anderson on the ground, shot in the torso, according to charges.
Nakeyia Anderson said they got into a fight after coming home from celebrating her birthday at a bar. She claimed during the fight, her husband grabbed the car keys of her silver Chevy Malibu to leave.
She got into the passenger seat and grabbed the gun inside, charges state. She said the gun went off as they fought over it.
He staggered to the yard, where he collapsed.
The house was in “disarray” with a liquor cabinet tipped over with several broken bottles scattered on the floor. Pictures were knocked off the wall, a glass table was partially tipped over and a TV was partially pulled off the wall. Kitchen appliances were thrown all over the floor.
Tihomas Anderson’s relatives told police their relationship was “volatile,” that she drank heavily and had threatened to kill him before, the affidavit alleges. Police were called to the home twice before — in April and November 2020 for domestic disturbances, records show.
mcolias@post-trib.com
