Man sentenced in fatal shooting of girl in car
Source: Associated Press
Man sentenced in fatal shooting of girl in car
By MARK GILLISPIE, Associated Press | December 30, 2014 | Updated: December 30, 2014 3:29pm
CLEVELAND (AP) — Convicted of murder, Geoffrey Gurkovich stood before a judge in Cleveland on Tuesday and wept as he tried to describe his sorrow and stupidity for having shot and killed a 5-year-old girl as she was sitting in a car with her mom last January.
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The 33-year-old man pleaded guilty last month to murder for killing Jermani Brooks and to two counts of felonious assault for shooting her mother in the head and exposing her brother, Cameron, to the violence.
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Gurkovich, who has a long criminal record, was on probation at the time of the shootings and was estranged from his girlfriend and her 2-year-old son. On the morning of Jan. 19, he received a text from the girlfriend telling him that a man they both knew had harassed and threatened her and her son at a gas station. The girlfriend described the SUV the man was riding in. It was an SUV owned by Brooks.
That night, Brooks' boyfriend drove her and their three children in her SUV over to the house of the man who Gurkovich's girlfriend said had threatened her and her son. Brooks' boyfriend got out of the dark-windowed SUV and began roughhousing with the man. At that point, Gurkovich pulled up in his vehicle and fired shots into Brooks' SUV, striking Jermani and her mother.
Gurkovich told the judge Tuesday he didn't know that anyone was inside the vehicle and learned later that the estranged girlfriend's story was a lie and that no one had harassed her that day.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/NE-Ohio-man-sent-to-prison-in-slaying-of-5985407.php
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Geoffrey Gurkovich sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 26 years for killing 5-year-old Jermani Brooks (video and gallery)
By Rachel Dissell, The Plain Dealer
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on December 30, 2014 at 1:12 PM, updated December 30, 2014 at 2:53 PM
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Geoffrey Gurkovich, 33, admitted in November to killing Jermani and shooting her mother, who is now blind in her right eye. Gurkovich told Suster that Brooks was right, "I deserve everything you are going to give me and more," he said, wiping tears on the shoulder of his orange jail shirt. "If I could take my life and bring her back I would do it 100 times over," he said.
Suster cited Gurkovich's criminal record, which included stints in prison for domestic violence, in sentencing him to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 26 years.
Gurkovich maintained he didn't know the family was in the parked car on Crossburn Avenue in Cleveland when he shot into it on Jan. 19, 2014. His attorneys said he admitted to the murder to avoid a trial for the family.
Defense attorney Gian DeCaris said Gurkovich's actions were set into motion by a lie.
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Assistant County Prosecutor Blaise Thomas took issue with how Gurkovich's attorney described the incident. Gurkovich fired multiple times into the car at close range and then fled, later ditching the car he drove to try and cover his tracks.
More:
http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/12/geoffrey_gurkovich_sentenced_t.html
