A Prince George’s County judge sentenced a Lanham teenager to 20 years in prison for the fatal drive-by shooting of a high school student who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Eighteen-year-old Jeffrey D. Boddie II pleaded guilty to the death of Cherrese Richardson, an 18-year-old senior at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale. Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Shelia Tillerson-Adams handed down the maximum sentence for voluntary manslaughter, use of a handgun in commission of a felony, and first-degree assault.
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Boddie was the second teenager ordered to prison in the killing. Terrance R. Martin, 18, of Lanham, was sentenced to 25 years after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder last year.
Prosecutors said the slaying stemmed from a dispute between groups of youths. Richardson did not belong to either group.
On Jan. 8, 2008, Richardson and Sonja Bangura, 17, were walking near the high school on Ardwick-Ardmore Road.
At the same time, two cars headed were circling the school, looking for a student who was in a rival neighborhood group, police said. Boddie was in one car; Martin was in the other. Neither attended Flowers High School.
Martin, Boddie and others in the cars exchanged words with several people on the sidewalk. The argument escalated into gunfire.
Boddie and Martin admitted they had fired weapons from their cars, but said they did not intend to hit anyone, prosecutors said. The two said they thought they were being fired on, but prosecutors said there was no evidence of other shooters.
A stray bullet struck Richardson in the head. Bangura was shot in the left hip.
Two other people, a student and a man who was driving nearby, were also hit by stray bullets. The other three victims survived.
Richardson died two days later.
