It appeared to be an open-and-closed case of a mugging gone wrong; one of two teenage boys, demanding cash from a Brunswick, Georgia mother shot her son in the head in May when she didn’t give them any cash. But according to defense attorneys, it was the mother who committed the shocking act—for insurance money.
In a case so controversial the trial location had to be moved in order to avoid prejudice, 15-year-old Dominique Lang claims his partner in crime, 18-year-old De’Marquise Elkins, shot 13-month-old Antonio Santiago between the eyes where he sat in a stroller. But public defender Kevin Gough says differently, writes Fox News.
“Other evidence of record suggests Sherry West [Santiago’s mother] is mentally unstable, gave several inconsistent accounts of how the crime transpired, and had a financial interest in the death of her son in the form of an insurance policy” from Gerber Insurance, said Gough. And according to West’s daughter, Ashley Glassey, West asked only days after the shooting, “How soon do you think the life insurance policy will send me a check?”
Traces of gunshot residue were found on West’s hands and the hands of her husband, Louis Santiago, according to the NY Daily News, which authorities say is not unusual for shooting victims. West was shot in the leg and the ear by the same .22 caliber gun as her son, and her husband claims to have touched one of her wounds.
Meanwhile, West was identified as the shooter in another crime 10 days prior. Because he was a minor at the time of both crimes, he will be tried as a minor in the coming weeks and face a maximum sentence of life in prison.