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Gadson sentenced to six months in Suffolk House of Correction

E-mail|Link September 2, 2010 03:40 PM

By Brian R. Ballou and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A Dorchester woman was sentenced to six months in the Suffolk County House of Correction today for lying to Boston police as they investigated the killing of her 8-year-old son, who was shot to death by her nephew inside her apartment.

Lakeisha Gadson was convicted of lying to police, but acquitted of the major charge against her -- involuntary manslaughter -- during a Suffolk Superior Court trial last month. Today, Superior Court Judge Thomas Connors sentenced Gadson for the sole count of misleading police, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence.

Defense attorney Peter Krupp urged Connors to put Gadson on probation. "Miss Gadson has already lost her son,'' he said in court. "It's not something she will ever get back. It's a punishment greater than any punishment the court could impose.''

From the bench, Connors said that Gadson has 19 convictions stemming from 11 incidents during the past 10 years. He also noted that while Gadson initially mislead police, she changed her mind and told the truth within 24 hours of her son's death.

He then sentenced her to serve six months in the House of Correction, ordered the rest of a 2.5-year sentence to be suspended, and placed her on probation for four years. Court officers surrounded Gadson -- who remained composed during the hearing today -- after Connors' decision, handcuffed her, and escorted her out of the courtroom to begin her sentence immediately.

Prosecutors had filed the manslaughter charge against her claiming that she possessed a gun or knew her son, Jayquan McConnico, possessed a gun in her apartment within reach of children. She was also charged with child endangerment, unlawful possession of a firearm, and improper storage of a firearm.

Josh Reynolds / For The Globe (Aug. 2010)

Lakeisha Gadson

Gadson faced 20 years on the manslaughter charge, but an 8-woman and 4-man jury acquitted her on all charges except misleading police, which carried a 10-year maximum sentence.

Liquarry Jefferson found the loaded 9mm handgun in a drawer in McConnico’s room on June 24, 2007, and handed it to his cousin, who accidentally shot Liquarry. The cousin, who is now 10, testified during the trial, saying, “I did it by accident.’’

Gadson and McConnico initially gave investigators false accounts of how Liquarry was shot, but their separate statements had numerous inconsistencies, and within several hours after the shooting, Gadson admitted that it was her young nephew who had shot her son. She later apologized in a press conference.

McConnico later admitted to keeping the loaded gun in their Seaver Street home. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2008 and was in custody for about a year. Now 18, he is “living in the community,’’ according to his attorney, Steven Sack.

About dozen relatives and friends were in the courtroom today when Gadson was sentenced. As she was being led out of the courtroom, she turned and whispered some words towards her mother.