Whitebear
Publisher/Editor-in-chief
Pettis gets life in prison
Terry Pettis, right, stares ahead as he is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at a hearing Tuesday in Fresno.
Kent Wolf, left, the boyfriend of murder victim Rene Abbott, cries Tuesday as Abbott's parents, Maureen and Ron, listen during a hearing in Fresno.
Melissa Cenci, girlfriend of Terry Pettis, asks the judge Tuesday for a visit between Pettis and the couple's daughter at the county jail.
Former Fresno State
basketball player Terry Pettis will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for murdering 18-year-old Rene Shannon Abbott during a drug deal, a crime that both families said Tuesday has left them scarred.
Pettis, 21, was sentenced Tuesday in Fresno County Superior Court for shooting Abbott as she sat in the driver's seat of her car in a north Fresno office parking lot in April 2004.
Pettis did not admit responsibility for the murder, which culminated eight years of marijuana abuse for the former star, before he was sentenced, saying a life sentence would be unjust.
"Taking my life away is only doubling the punishment" by forever depriving another family, he told Judge W. Kent Hamlin. "Take a son away. Take a daughter away. There's no justice in that."
His father, Michael Tate, who traveled from Minnesota for the sentencing, also asked the judge to allow that his son be someday released from prison. He said Pettis was a model son before moving from Minnesota to attend college in Fresno.
"He
came here on a dream and it ended in a nightmare," Tate said.
He told Hamlin that if Pettis were released from prison, he would receive support from his family, his church and his friends, and would become a mentor to children.
But Maureen Abbott, Rene's mother, left no doubt where she stood: "Terry Pettis is the most evil person I have ever known."
She asked Hamlin to order the maximum sentence, saying "this tragedy has inflicted great grief and pain to my family." She said she has suffered from depression and exhaustion, lost her job, and takes "anti-depressants, blood pressure pills and sleeping pills to continue on."
Hamlin agreed.
As the judge rendered his final decision, Pettis' grandmother, Marilyn Tate Johnson, suddenly screamed: "Oh God, where are you?"
Pettis was convicted May 26 of murder and attempted robbery for the April 27, 2004, incident in which he shot Abbott and wounded her boyfriend, Kent Wolf. The couple was with Michael Tunnell inside Abbott's car negotiating the sale of an ounc
e of marijuana for $280 when Pettis confronted them with a gun, prosecutors said.
Court records say Pettis started smoking marijuana at age 13 and "he still feels like he has a problem with marijuana," stated a probation report written after Pettis' conviction.
Rene Abbott was a Fresno City College student and golfer who attended St. Anthony's Catholic Church and did volunteer work, her family said.
Terry Pettis, right, stares ahead as he is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at a hearing Tuesday in Fresno.
Kent Wolf, left, the boyfriend of murder victim Rene Abbott, cries Tuesday as Abbott's parents, Maureen and Ron, listen during a hearing in Fresno.
Melissa Cenci, girlfriend of Terry Pettis, asks the judge Tuesday for a visit between Pettis and the couple's daughter at the county jail.
Former Fresno State
basketball player Terry Pettis will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for murdering 18-year-old Rene Shannon Abbott during a drug deal, a crime that both families said Tuesday has left them scarred.
Pettis, 21, was sentenced Tuesday in Fresno County Superior Court for shooting Abbott as she sat in the driver's seat of her car in a north Fresno office parking lot in April 2004.
Pettis did not admit responsibility for the murder, which culminated eight years of marijuana abuse for the former star, before he was sentenced, saying a life sentence would be unjust.
"Taking my life away is only doubling the punishment" by forever depriving another family, he told Judge W. Kent Hamlin. "Take a son away. Take a daughter away. There's no justice in that."
His father, Michael Tate, who traveled from Minnesota for the sentencing, also asked the judge to allow that his son be someday released from prison. He said Pettis was a model son before moving from Minnesota to attend college in Fresno.
"He
came here on a dream and it ended in a nightmare," Tate said.
He told Hamlin that if Pettis were released from prison, he would receive support from his family, his church and his friends, and would become a mentor to children.
But Maureen Abbott, Rene's mother, left no doubt where she stood: "Terry Pettis is the most evil person I have ever known."
She asked Hamlin to order the maximum sentence, saying "this tragedy has inflicted great grief and pain to my family." She said she has suffered from depression and exhaustion, lost her job, and takes "anti-depressants, blood pressure pills and sleeping pills to continue on."
Hamlin agreed.
As the judge rendered his final decision, Pettis' grandmother, Marilyn Tate Johnson, suddenly screamed: "Oh God, where are you?"
Pettis was convicted May 26 of murder and attempted robbery for the April 27, 2004, incident in which he shot Abbott and wounded her boyfriend, Kent Wolf. The couple was with Michael Tunnell inside Abbott's car negotiating the sale of an ounc
e of marijuana for $280 when Pettis confronted them with a gun, prosecutors said.
Court records say Pettis started smoking marijuana at age 13 and "he still feels like he has a problem with marijuana," stated a probation report written after Pettis' conviction.
Rene Abbott was a Fresno City College student and golfer who attended St. Anthony's Catholic Church and did volunteer work, her family said.
