The 20-year-old accused of killing a teenager and her unborn child could face life in prison if convicted, according to Georgia law. But for now, Souleyman Diallo will remain in the Fulton County jail.
Diallo has been charged with second-degree murder and feticide after allegedly firing a single shot through the floor of a southwest Atlanta apartment, according to police. The bullet struck and killed Sonja Star Harrison, 14, who was in a downstairs apartment at the time. Harrison was eight months pregnant and her unborn child also died.
Harrison’s mother said Diallo was not the father of the unborn child, but declined to discuss his arrest Thursday.
Credit: Family photo/Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Family photo/Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Diallo waived his first court appearance Friday, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. His next hearing has not yet been scheduled. Diallo was also charged with reckless conduct and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to police.
In Georgia, a feticide conviction carries a sentence of life in prison and is a more serious charge than the second-degree murder charge he also faces, according to attorney Esther Panitch.
“A person commits the offense of feticide if he or she willfully and without legal justification causes the death of an unborn child by any injury to the mother of such child…” Georgia law states. “…Or if he or she, when in the commission of a felony, causes the death of an unborn child.
The second-degree murder charge can be used when someone has caused the death of a minor and prosecutors hope to obtain a longer sentence than would be possible under a charge of involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter allows a maximum prison sentence of 10 years on a conviction, but the sentence for a second-degree murder conviction ranges from 10 to 30 years.
The second-degree murder law has been on the book in Georgia since July 2014. State Rep. Christian Coomer, a Cartersville attorney, sponsored legislation to create the law because of discrepancies in how law enforcement agencies were filing charges when a child had died in a hot car.
Though the charge has often used against someone taking care of a child, it applies in Harrison’s death, Panitch said.
“The law as written does not limit (the charge) to a parent or caregiver, so anybody that it could apply to could be charged under it,” she said. “It’s the 14-year-old that is driving the charge.”
Harrison, who attended Freedom Middle School in Stone Mountain, loved to sing and hoped to join the Army one day, her mother said. Funeral arrangements were pending late Friday, according to RW Andrews Mortuary in Atlanta.
In an interview with Channel 2 Action News, Harrison’s father and aunt said they believed the teen knew the person responsible for firing the fatal shot.
“I don’t want Star to be swept under the rug and just written off as some pregnant, 14-year-old black girl,” the teen’s aunt, Pebbles Harrison, said. “She was very sweet. She still watched the Disney Channel. She loved to sing. She was a child. Someone took advantage of a child.”
WHAT GEORGIA LAWS SAY
Feticide: A person commits the offense of feticide if he or she willfully and without legal justification causes the death of an unborn child by any injury to the mother of such child, which would be murder if it resulted in the death of such mother, or if he or she, when in the commission of a felony, causes the death of an unborn child.
Second-degree murder: A person commits the offense of murder in the second degree when, in the commission of cruelty to children in the second degree, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice. Georgia law 16-5-1
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