Man sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes

Style Magazine Newswire | 5/2/2022, 3:11 p.m.
The second of two men responsible for the 2018 drive-by shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes has been sentenced to …
Larry Demetricus Woodruffe

The second of two men responsible for the 2018 drive-by shooting death of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of capital murder, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Friday.

Larry Demetricus Woodruffe, 27, was automatically sentenced after being convicted by a Harris County jury. He is the second of two men convicted of killing the child on Dec. 30, 2018. The other has already pleaded guilty.

“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,” Ogg said.

Jazmine and three of her siblings were passengers in their mother’s Dodge Avenger when they left a Wal-Mart near their home in northeast Harris County. Woodruffe was riding in a car driven by Eric Black when Woodruffe opened fire on the family’s vehicle, which Woodruffe and Black apparently thought belonged to a rival they had clashed with earlier in the night. Jazmine has hit and killed. Her mother was wounded by a bullet to the shoulder.

Black pleaded guilty in exchange for his testimony against Woodruffe. A judge will determine his sentence, which has been capped at 35 years in prison.

“Cases where children are killed are always exceptionally hard,” said Assistant District Attorney Alycia Harvey, who prosecuted the case. “We are grateful to the jury, who endured the heart-wrenching testimony and delivered justice for Jazmine.”

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