Inset: Dante Lamar Daugherty (DCSO). Background: Daugherty coming out of the Texaco gas station (WSB)
A 44-year-old father in Georgia will go to prison after leaving his two young children in a car with an unsecured handgun, resulting in his 7-year-old son being shot and killed. On Thursday, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Courtney L. Johnson ordered Dante Lamar Daugherty to serve two years in a state correctional facility over the 2023 death of young Z”ayre Daugherty, authorities announced.
The judge handed down the sentence after Daugherty pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree cruelty to children as part of a non-negotiated deal with prosecutors, District Attorney Sherry Boston said in a news release. In addition to his incarceration, Daugherty will be required to serve eight years of probation.
Prosecutors stated that they were seeking a sentence of five years in custody, followed by five years of probation.
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the DeKalb County Police Department at about 6:10 p.m. on Monday responded to a call regarding a child being shot at a Texaco gas station located in the 1800 block of Rock Chapel Road in Lithonia, which is about 20 miles east of Atlanta.
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Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found Daugherty in the back seat of an SUV holding the victim, who had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Emergency medical personnel reached the gas station a short while later and pronounced Z’ayre dead.
Police recovered Daugherty’s gun and the shell casing from inside the vehicle. Daugherty and his 5-year-old son, who was also in the car at the time of the shooting, were transported to DKPD Headquarters, where Daugherty agreed to provide a statement.
In an interview with detectives, Daugherty said that when he arrived at the gas station, he initially exited the vehicle with his two sons. However, he then noticed that Z’ayre was missing a sock and a shoe, so he told the boys to get back in the car and wait for him.
“Daugherty took his gun off of his waist band, wrapped it in a cloth, and placed it under the driver’s seat before heading into the gas station,” prosecutors wrote in the release. “While inside, Defendant Daugherty noticed one of the rear doors open on the SUV and returned to find that Z’ayre had been shot. He was unsure if Z’ayre had shot himself or had been shot by his brother. The brother was unable to tell investigators what exactly had happened.”
Surveillance footage from the gas station appeared to confirm Daugherty’s story, showing both kids entering the back seat of the car before “a flash of gunfire” could be seen.
The clerk who was working the counter when Daugherty came in spoke to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB, telling the station that Daugherty was a “regular” customer who had stopped in to play the lottery before the incident. While Daugherty is inside the store, the footage shows the 5-year-old child throwing open the passenger-side back door in a panic and running from the car in the direction of a busy intersection.
Records show that Daugherty, in 2015, pleaded guilty to charges of battery against a family member and disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 24 months of probation. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of loitering for drugs and was given six months’ probation.
