Judge spares life of Warrensville Heights barbershop shooter Douglas Shine Jr.
By Cory Shaffer
cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A judge on Monday spared the life of Douglas Shine Jr., the 21-year-old Heartless Felon who faced death by lethal injection after he was convicted in the 2015 barbershop massacre and conspiracy to execute a witness.
Cuyahoga County Judge Joan Synenberg chose not to follow a jury's November recommendation that Shine be executed, citing a "transient, non-nurturing and violent childhood" that left Shine with undiagnosed mental disorders and the emotional maturity of a 5 year old.
"The adults involved in Douglas's life failed him," Synenberg said as she handed down the sentence.
Synenberg sentenced Shine to four life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 380 years, shocking the courtroom packed with relatives of the victims of Shine's shooting spree.
"Say your prayers, Duke," one woman shouted from the back of the back of the courtroom as court security escorted Shine back to his holding cell after the sentencing.
Shine was convicted in November of killing three people inside Chalk Linez Barbershop in Warrensville Heights in 2015, and for orchestrating the killing of a witness to the shootings.
Jurors deliberated for two days before recommending on Nov. 16 that Shine be sentenced to the death penalty
Shine spoke at the hearing for the first time since his trial began in September.
"All I gotta say is, I'll be back," Shine said as he rocked back and forth.
Synenberg handed down the sentence after hearing from family members of Walter Barfield, Brandon White and William Gonzalez, who were killed Feb. 5, 2015 inside Chalk Linez Barbershop, and Aaron "Pudge" Ladson, the witness who was gunned down in his driveway several months later.
"This is a mother's worst nightmare," said Angela Ladson, mother to Aaron Ladson and Brandon White. "I never thought I would bury my sons before me."
Prosecutors at trial painted Shine as a cold-blooded and vengeful gang member whose affinity for retribution erupted in gunfire inside Chalk Linez.
Shine, whose criminal history began when he was 10 years old, took a handgun from a member of the Loyal Always gang on a party bus that January, prosecutors said. That one slight spurred a weeks-long exchange of gunfire between rivals on the southeast side of Cleveland, prosecutors said.
Shine fired 13 shots at one member of the gang, and engaged in a shootout with Barfield, whose gun Shine had taken on the bus.
The next month, a hooded Shine burst into Chalk Linez Barbershop on Harvard Road in Warrensville Heights, clutching two pistols with extended clips, and opened fire into a crowd of people. He fired dozens of bullets, including 16 into Barfield as he and White looked at plane tickets to Las Vegas on a cellphone, prosecutors said.
Shine walked over to Barfield's body and fired three execution-style shots into his head before he ran out of the shop, prosecutors said.
Barfield and White and head barber Gonzalez all died in the killing. Three more people were wounded.
Aaron Ladson, was gunned down in June 2015 in his driveway as he prepared for a court hearing in an unrelated case.
Aaron Ladson was sitting in his car just outside the barbershop at the time of the shooting. He recognized Shine as the barbershop gunman, and went to police days after the shooting. He likely would have testified at Shine's trial.
Prosecutors played Aaron Ladson's videotaped statement identifying Shine to Warrensville Heights police during the trial, and seven more witnesses in the barbershop testified that Shine was the shooter.
Shine's brother, Kevin McKinney, is also charged with conspiracy and aggravated murder in Aaron Ladson's killing. His trial was delayed until after Shine's case ended.
During the penalty phase of the trial, Shine's lawyers argued that he had no clear role model growing up to pull him away from gang influence. He was coerced into joining the Heartless Felons in a youth prison, and was threatened when he tried to leave, his attorneys said.
His mother spent four months in jail when Shine was just six months old, and frequently abused him physically and mentally, Kaplan testified. Shine told a psychologist that his mother berated him, called him names, refused to celebrate his birthday, threw skillets at him and once ordered Shine's older brother to beat him with a belt.
She also refused to sign the paperwork to get Shine into a specialized education plan when he was in elementary school, and pulled him out of football practice when he was 8 years old because she didn't want to take him to practice, Shine's stepmother, Stinner Shine, testified at trial.
A psychologist and a social worker who was tapped as a mitigation specialist by the court testified that they believed Shine suffered from undiagnosed mental and personality disorders, and fell through the cracks of the social service safety net.
"If appropriately diagnosed and treated....Douglas could have been administered counseling, family preservation services and possible medication to change the trajectory of his life, possibly avoiding the criminal justice system all together," the social worker, Ceci McDonnell, testified.
One of Shine's relatives is accused of trying to tamper with jurors and witnesses, even after Shine was convicted, prosecutors say.
LaSandra Johnson, Shine's aunt, is charged with obstruction of justice after prosecutors said she approached a relative of a juror in the case outside a school and tried to convince her not to convict Shine.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors countered that growing up in a dysfunctional household did not excuse Shine's own choices to lead a life of escalating crimes that started when he was 10 years old and culminated a decade later when he opened fire inside a crowded barbershop.
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