Man sentenced in 11-year-old girl’s killing in shooting of mistaken NLV house
More than five years later, the surviving siblings of an 11-year-old girl killed when their North Las Vegas house was mistakenly targeted in a gang-related shooting can’t tolerate sitting in rooms with windows, or the popping sound of fireworks.
“I can’t even tell my girls ‘Let’s go home,’ ” their mother, Anabel Sarabia, said during the sentencing of one of the men who admitted to his role in the death of Angelina Erives. “They are scared because we were home.”
District Judge Michelle Leavitt on Wednesday sentenced 26-year-old Jarquan Tiffith to 35 years to life in a Nevada prison for the young victim’s death.
Forty-three bullets shattered the family’s peace in the Nov. 1, 2018, shooting that killed Angelina, who was sitting at the kitchen table, helping her 14-year-old sister with a school science project, according to North Las Vegas police.
Her teenage sister, their younger sister and her parents were uninjured. The grieving mother composed herself to read a statement before Leavitt handed down the sentence.
“My baby didn’t deserve this,” she said, sobbing. “She was good — too good — (and) all he left me with were memories.”
Pending cases
In the aftermath of the shooting, North Las Vegas police arrested four suspects, while a fifth — Guy Lee Banks III, 19 — was fatally shot after a neighbor fired at the getaway vehicle as they fled the scene.
The barrage of gunfire was part of a botched gang retaliation, according to police documents, which said that the victims’ home sat near “a known gang house.”
Clark County prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for Tiffith and Isaac George — two of three identified shooters — but Tiffith pleaded guilty to murder and other shooting-related charges in late April, days before a trial was slated to begin, court records show.
The third shooter, Damion Dill, pleaded guilty in 2019 to first-degree murder. Because he was a minor at the time, prosecutors agreed to a sentence of 20 to 50 years in prison.
George, 25, and getaway driver Erin Deshawn Lynn Hines, 23, are still awaiting trial on murder and gun charges. They remain jailed at the Clark County Detention Center.
‘Evil came knocking to my door’
Angelina’s loved ones noted that she would’ve been a senior in the upcoming school year. She was kind, selfless and funny, her sister, Dayanara Erives told the court as she cried. Angelina was “the happiest girl in the world” when she snacked on a bag of Hot Cheetos, she added.
Anabel Sarabia said the tragic November day shattered her family. She can’t get it out of her head.
“I will never forget screaming, ‘Get down, get down!’ and my baby never made it down,” she sobbed. “As a mom, my job was to protect them: I failed, I failed because I couldn’t stop people like you.”
She added: “Evil came knocking to my door, and we’d never done anything wrong.”
The mother said she forgave Tiffith, who apologized to the family before he was sentenced.
“I can’t save you. All I can do is pray for him,” Anabel Sarabia said. “I really hope you make something of yourself in there since my little one can’t.”
A stern Alberto Sarabia said he wished he could have his wife’s resolve, adding that he will carry his anger as a grieving father until the day he dies.
“You reap what you sow,” he told Tiffith, and then addressed Leavitt. “There’s no remorse. … You have better judgment than I’ll ever do.”
He repeatedly said “4,295” — the number of days Angelina was alive.
“I hope one day you’ll realize how much damage you’ve done to me and my family,” Erives said. “And how you left us incomplete.”
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.