JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After weeks of arguments over whether Rasheem Dubose should receive a greater punishment than his two brothers for killing 8-year-old Dreshawna Davis, a judge on Thursday sentenced him to death.
Rasheem, Terrell and Tajuan Dubose were convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder for the crime: firing 29 shots into the northwest Jacksonville home of Dreshawna's grandparents with bullets in July 2006. The girl was killed while she was watching a DVD in a bedroom with two younger cousins.
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Separate juries recommended sentences: life in prison for Terrell and Tajuan Dubose and death for Rasheem Dubose.
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While his attorney argued the Rasheem Dubose, 26, should not received a greater sentence than his brothers, Judge Lawrence Haddock found several aggravating factors that justify the death sentence for Rasheem Dubose.
"He is the shooter who fired 23 of the 29 shots fired that night," Haddock said. "Nothing in the record herein mandates that this defendant receive the same sentence as his brothers."
In addition to the death penalty, Dubose was sentenced to 15 years for a second charge: shooting or throwing deadly missiles.
"I'm just glad that this part of the trial is over," Dreshawna's grandmother, Vonnie Frazier, said outside the courtroom. "We've got two hurting families... It's hard."
Prosecutors had maintained that Rasheem Dubose deserved the death penalty because the jury believes he was the ringleader.
"There was no area in this tiny home that was safe," prosecutor London Kite said during an earlier sentencing hearing. "Unlike his brothers, this defendant fired the majority of the shots, and we can say conclusively his shot killed Dreshawna Davis."
However, Rasheem Dubose's attorney, Shelley Eckels, had argued that it was the actions of Dreshawna's uncle who earlier held a gun to Dubose's head that led to the shooting. Eckels said it was a revenge shooting and that Dreshawna was never the intended target.
Eckels said Rasheem Dubose's background plays a large role in this case. She said he has mental issues and can't control his emotions, problems that started as a child because of his mother.
Dubose declined the opportunity to speak prior to the sentence being pronounced.
In announcing the death penalty sentence, Haddock said he found little or no evidence that Rasheem Dubose suffered abuse or to support more than 20 other mitigating factors that defense lawyers offered to keep Dubose off Death Row.