Larnell Allen was sentenced to 19 years in prison Friday for his role in the 2010 shooting death of 17-year-old Springarn High School student Joseph Alonzo Sharps Jr. – with credit for the nearly three years he has already served.
Allen pled guilty to second-degree murder while armed, assault with intent to kill and two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
A friend of Sharps, who was also shot but survived his injuries, told police he and Sharps were crossing Neal Street in D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood Nov. 8, 2010 when they were confronted by three men.
Kwan Kearney, who was with Allen, asked the teens “Are you reaching? Are you reaching?” then “pulled out a handgun” and began shooting at them. Kearney had been released from jail that same day, prosecutors later wrote in court filings.
Allen, a witness told police, “was just there, he didn’t do nothing.”
Kearney was convicted by a jury of killing Sharps, and was also convicted in a separate case of killing Jamal Demetrius Wilson in Nov. 2010. The convictions brought Kearney, 21, a combined sentence of 105 years behind bars.
Allen later told police he pointed a gun in the direction of Sharps and shot at him, but didn’t know if the shots hit him.
“I withdrew my gun from my hip and I fired,” Allen testified at Kearney’s trial. “It’s like backing him up. One fires, we all fire.”
Allen will be required to serve five years of supervised release at the conclusion of his sentence.
Sentencing documents are below:
