Toledoan, 18, gets 11 years in slaying; 1 man shot to death, 2nd injured

1/23/2013

A Toledo man who fired at least three shots into a car, killing one man and injuring another, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in prison.

Damar Smith, 18, of 909 Vance St. shot and killed Vicktron Moore, 30, as he was sitting inside a car on Tecumseh Street in central Toledo on May 30.

Terrance Cohen, 37, who also was in the car, was wounded.

“The offense in this case was clearly intentional,” Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Frederick McDonald said. “He shot into a car with two men — one was shot in the head. The other was shot in the arm. It requires a lengthy sentence.”

Smith, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, had faced up to 12 years in prison. He entered an Alford plea on Jan. 8 to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter with a one-year gun specification. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit to committing a crime, but acknowledges evidence is sufficient for a conviction. The court treats it as a guilty plea.

Smith, in a brief statement, apologized to the victims and their families and said that he was “sorry for my family seeing me here in these chains.”

Laticia Moore told the court her cousin, Vicktron, was “a father of three, a son, a brother, a cousin, an uncle, and a friend. He didn’t deserve to be hunted down like an outlaw.”