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A shooting and crash incident on the Las Vegas Strip resulted in the death of three people in 2013. Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, the 29 year old man convicted in relation to this crime was sentenced to death today, as the judge decided to accept the jury’s recommendation.
As Kathleen E. Delaney, the District Court Judge conveyed the sentence; Harris showed no reaction and remained quiet.
The jury, which comprised of four men and eight women, took around two hours to come to a decision regarding the sentence. The jury decided to convict Harris of 11 charges of felony, which included three counts of first-degree murder.
It was three years ago that the tragic incident occurred that resulted in the death of three innocent people. On Feb 21, 2013 a car chase was happening between Harris in his Range Rover and Kenneth Cherry Jr. in his Mazerati near Flamingo Road, on the Las Vegas Boulevard. During the chase, Harris shot the 27 year old Cherry, whose vital organs got severely damaged with the bullet, thus killing him. As this happened, Cherry’s car slammed into a taxi nearby, which caused an explosion that killed Michael Boldon, the taxi driver and Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, the passenger inside the taxi. There was also a passenger in Cherry’s car who suffered from a minor gunshot wound. After the shooting and crash incident, Harris fled from Las Vegas and was later found in Los Angeles, where he was arrested.
Tehran Boldon, the brother of the taxi driver who died was the only family member related to the victims who was present at the formal sentencing today. As the court clerk announced the sentence, Tehran wept. “My faith in human nature is restored,” he said. “I didn’t know what to think throughout the whole trial. My brother deserved to live, and Ammar deserves to die.”
The trial had become too difficult for Cherry’s family to attend, according to Cherry’s cousin Shanna Cherry; therefore none of them appeared for the final sentencing. Shanna’s husband, Trevor Carson said that Cherry possessed a “good heart” and he never hesitated to help out his friends.
Harris’ lawyer Robert Langford’s defense argument was that Harris had acted in self-defense, thus he had insisted on a sentence less than a death penalty. It’s the norm for death penalty sentences to be appealed and since there is a long process between this decision and the execution, it’s likely that this decision will be appealed in the court.
