Terrell A. Sampson, the 20-year-old Bunnell man who opened fire on three people on a street in Bunnell in January 2022, triggering a shootout that killed 16-Year-old Noah Smith, was sentenced to 12 years in prison this morning. No probation following the sentence was imposed.
Sampson’s bullets did not hit Smith, but Circuit Judge Terence Perkins noted that had Sampson not opened fire, the shootout would not have followed.
Sampson pleaded last October to three counts of attempted manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a delinquent. He had originally faced three attempted second degree murder charges that, had he been convicted at trial, might have led to life terms. The plea was part of a layered agreement that would have limited the sentence to 5 to 15 years, with the assumption that Sampson would testify against three other men involved in the case: Devandre “Dre” Williams, Tyrese “Pooh” Patterson, and Stephen “Kreek” Monroe.
Another part of the plea was conditioned on Sampson’s agreement to become a witness for the state against the three other defendants.
Last July, on the eve of his trial, Patterson pleaded out. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 6. He faces up to 50 years in prison. The cases against Williams and Monroe are ongoing. Williams faces a s, Monroe a first degree murder charge. Both are life felonies.
Assistant State Attorney Mark Johnson told Perkins today that Sampson’s deposition had gone poorly. The state no longer intended to use him as a witness, making that part of the condition in the plea agreement invalid.
But was it? The judge wanted to know whether Sampson lied during the deposition, or whether his testimony during the deposition simply did not prove useful to the state–two different things. One would mean that Sampson was being intentionally obstructive, breaking his part of the deal. The other would mean that the state simply did not find what it thought it would in his testimony. It proved to be the latter.
“What I do know for sure is his testimony was inconsistent,” Johnson told the judge, and especially in consistent with what the other defendants said. His testimony at their trial “would be counterproductive to the state’s case,” Johnson said.
“You felt his testimony was inaccurate but not necessarily untruthful,” Perkins asked Johnson.
“That’s correct,” Johnson said.
Sampson’s sentencing scoresheet resulted in a minimum of 10 years
Still, Johnson argued for a 15-year prison sentence, “primarily based on his record,” Johnson said, which includes prior cases of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, drug charges and battery charges, domestic and otherwise. Even Sampson’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Courtney Davidson, conceded that the record is “atrocious.”
Fifteen years, Johnson said, is “a fair sentence based on his record and the nature of this particular case.”
Davidson said Sampson was “taking full responsibility for his role” in the shooting. A letter he’d written and that Davidson handed to the judge made the point: “I admit I made some bad and immature decisions that has me standing before you today,” Sampson wrote in a legible, careful script . “All I’m asking for is another chance and opportunity at life. I learned a major and valuable lesson out of this situation, and after this I plan on talking to and helping the youth out. I know I can’t save them all but if I can save a couple it would be my way of giving back to the community.”
Sampson wrote about his plans to get a commercial driver’s license and to pursue higher education, he wrote of how the situation was “a blessing to me” because it gave him time to reflect and gave him a new perspective on life, but for all the repetitions of the first person singular, the page-long letter was void of a single reference to Noah Smith’s life, a single reference to the harm and hurt he’d caused, a single sense of awareness of the chances and perspectives and open eyes his action robbed a young life that was barely beginning.
The judge read the letter before imposing sentence. Davidson argued that Sampson deserved a sentence at the bottom of the guidelines, and that the state had anyway been willing to look past the record when the plea agreement was taken, as long as Sampson was cooperative as a witness. He had been, she said. “We can’t say that he was being untruthful or tried to hide anything on purpose” during the deposition, Davidson told the judge.
“Mr. Sampson escalated this situation by turning to what I would call deadly force, right?” the judge asked her. “Is there any evidence that deadly force was being threatened or used by anyone else before he started firing?”
“To my knowledge, you honor, no,” Davidson said.
After some additional deliberations, the judge ruled: “This is not a bottom of the guidelines case. The benefit to Mr. Sampson is that the resolution of this case as negotiated on his behalf is a very, very good resolution for him. I’m not sure without that resolution, I would have been in that range at all. But with that resolution, obviously, I accepted the plea.” He then sentenced him to 12 years with credit for time served, the sentences running concurrently on all the charges.
Sampson has been held at the St. Johns County jail for his protection–as a state’s witness–but was now requesting to be returned to the Flagler jail as he awaits transfer to state prison. The judge said he would leave that up to the Sheriff’s Office.
A few members of Sampson’s family were in the courtroom for the sentencing. He caught a few glimpses of them, or tried to, but was ordered by bailiffs not to turn around. He managed a little wage of the hand, his hands in manacles, as he was being fingerprinted, before he was ushered out a side door.
