Baton Rouge woman gets 20 years in boyfriend's death; video undermined self-defense claim

A Baton Rouge woman who pleaded no contest to manslaughter in her boyfriend's 2017 slaying after her non-unanimous murder conviction was thrown out was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison.

Jimeelah Crockett, who dodged a mandatory term of life behind bars when her second-degree murder conviction was tossed out in 2020, faced a sentence in the range of 15 to 30 years under her manslaughter plea last February.

Less than two weeks after entering that plea, Crockett, 31, was free on bond when she allegedly beat and tortured her 12-year-old daughter. She was booked on a felony count of aggravated second-degree battery.

State District Judge Eboni Johnson-Rose, who did not preside over Crockett's 2019 murder trial but inherited the case when Judge Bonnie Jackson retired, said Tuesday she took Crockett's February arrest into consideration when sentencing her in the shooting death of Joseph Bunch III, 38.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said afterward his office appreciates the time and attention that Johnson-Rose gave in reviewing the trial transcript and the evidence "to reach her just sentencing decision."

Bunch's brother, Willie Depron, told Johnson-Rose that Crockett showed no remorse for shooting his brother in the back. Crockett has claimed she shot Bunch in self-defense.

"Judge, I'm asking you to give her the max," said Depron, who also mentioned Crockett's arrest involving her daughter while awaiting sentencing in his brother's killing. "How many more chances will she get?"

Outside the courtroom, Depron called Crockett a "threat to society."

Crockett's attorney, Kathryn Jakuback Burke, asked the judge for leniency, saying her client is a victim of battered woman syndrome at the hands of Bunch and others. She said there was a violent history between Crockett and Bunch.

"When we met Ms. Crockett, she was facing a life sentence. Any sentence that allows Jimeelah — or any other victim of domestic violence — the opportunity to return to her children is justice served," Burke said after court.

Crockett will be given credit for the time she already spent in jail in the case, from September 2017 to mid-2020.

Crockett told Johnson-Rose her life took a turn when she entered into a relationship that was "not in her best interest."

"I'm not proud of the decisions I made," she said.

In sentencing Crockett, the judge cited the trauma in Crockett's life due to domestic violence but also said Crockett lied to detectives investigating the fatal shooting. The judge also noted her arrest last year "for allegedly putting your hands on your daughter."

Crockett asked for a fair and compassionate sentence and noted that she had to bury a child while jailed in the Bunch case.

Crockett had two children at the time of Bunch’s death: an 8-year-old and a 9-month-old. She also delivered a child on May 5, 2018, while jailed in the Bunch case. That child, Josiah Crockett, died May 4, 2019, of blunt force injuries to his chest and abdomen. The child's father, Terence N. Ransom, was indicted on a second-degree murder charge. He is accused of punching the child during a profanity-laced tirade. He has a March 14 trial date.

Prosecutors have said Crockett's self-defense claim in Bunch's killing was contradicted by surveillance video that showed Bunch moving backward with his hands up and then turning to walk away as Crockett fired a single fatal shot in he parking lot of the Ardendale Oaks apartment complex on North Lobdell Boulevard, where they lived.

In her videotaped statement played at her trial, Crockett told Baton Rouge police detectives that Bunch had been physical with her inside their apartment that night and that she shot him outside after he came at her with a raised hand as if he meant to hit her.

Crockett had a busted lip and minor scratches on her body when police arrived at the scene. The gun, a 9 mm pistol, was found at the scene.