A teenager who killed a woman during a “gang-related lover’s quarrel” will spend the rest of her life in prison.
A Lawrenceville, Georgia judge handed down a 140-year prison sentence to 17-year-old Damia Mitchell on Monday, June 20.
Mitchell was tried as an adult and convicted of killing 20-year-old Faith Burns in a Dacula, Ga. subdivision on Valentine’s Day 2021.
Police say Mitchell, of Snellville, fired 19 gunshots at the home because she was upset with her ex-girlfriend who was inside the home.
Investigators say Burns (pictured) and Mitchell knew each other. Burns was dating Mitchell’s ex-girlfriend.
Police eventually arrested four other teenage girls who showed up with Mitchell to fight her ex.
Prosecutors called the shooting “a gang-related lover’s quarrel” and that the girls were members of a violent street gang.
Court documents obtained by 11 Alive News state Mitchell was associated with the Nine Trey Gangster Bloods, an Atlanta faction of the notorious Bloods street gang based in Los Angeles.
Mitchell had sent text messages to her ex warning her that she planned to shoot up her house and assault her.
A jury convicted Mitchell of voluntary manslaughter, three counts of aggravated assault and eight counts of street gang terrorism.
Mitchell’s family called the prison sentence excessive and said it deprived her of growing up and having her own children one day.
“I just know something needs to be done. What they did in court wasn’t right,” Vanissa Jackson, Mitchell’s mother, said. “She is not the shooter. She didn’t do this.”
“These gang charges, those were just trumped up charges, false charges they put on my child,” Jackson, said. “She’s not affiliated with gang members. She’s not in a gang.”
Mitchell’s aunt, Lena Hall, said the 140-year sentence would rob the child of her adulthood.
“No record, a child. She won’t even get the opportunity to live her life, have her own kids,” Hall told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Tony Thomas.
Kennedy Collins and Jocelyn Spencer, both 17, were arrested on felony murder and aggravated assault charges earlier this year. Thomas reports the girls reached plea deals with the prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, June 21.
Janae Washington and Diamond Giminez also agreed to plea deals. Spencer, Collins and Giminez all received four years in prison. While Washington was sentenced to 2 years.
Mitchell’s family say she is happy her friends received lighter sentences.
“They got the same charges. She is happy for them,” Mitchell’s mother said. “They made an example out of my baby.”
“Basically they’re saying you’ll never see daylight ever again in your life,” Jackson said. “They want my baby to die in jail for something that’s false and bogus.”
“It’s excessive sentencing, improper handling of evidence,” Mitchell’s father Kevin Mitchell said. “How can we trust the system if they roll like this?”
But Burns’ father said he feels like he was handed a worse sentence than Mitchell.
“One thing I would say is that I’m upset with the sentence that I got,” Allen Burns told Tony Thomas. “I got sentenced to life without my daughter. Everybody called her my twin. Looked just like me,” said Allen, pictured right with daughter Faith Burns at her graduation.
“She’s never coming back. I lost my daughter,” Allen Burns said. “They might get a chance to see and talk to their children, but we will never get that opportunity.”
A GoFundMe account raised over $22,000 for Burns’ funeral expenses.
Watch the video below.
