Texas Man, Larry Woodruffe Found Guilty Of Killing 7-Year-Old Girl In Drive-By Shooting
On Friday (April 29), a jury convicted a man of capital murder for the 2018 shooting death of a 7-year-old Black girl during a drive-by.
According to CBS News, Larry Woodruffe was given an automatic life sentence without parole for the crime, which the girl’s family initially believed was racially motivated.
Woodruffe was one of two men charged with killing Jazmine Barnes on December 30, 2018, as she and her family drove to a Houston grocery store. 23-year-old Eric Black Jr., the other man, pleaded guilty last month as part of an agreement with prosecutors that reduced his charge to murder. He is currently awaiting sentencing.
Prosecutors say Woodruffe and Black mistakenly thought they were firing at rival drug dealers when they shot at the girl and her family.
"The death of little Jazmine Barnes devastated our entire community, and everyone connected to this case worked very long and very hard to ensure her killers were brought to justice," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said, according to CBS News.
Initially, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office circulated a composite sketch based on the family’s description of a white man driving a red pickup truck. Later though, a tip implicated Woodruffe and Black, both of whom are Black.
