NEW ORLEANS — The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office announced the guilty pleas of two suspects in a shooting that left a tourist with a gunshot wound to the leg.
Prosecutors say Byron Wilson and his girlfriend Derrion Robinson pleaded guilty to aggravated battery charges.
The attack happened on Sunday, September 23, 2018, in the 600 block of Canal Street.
Prosecutors say Robinson got into an argument with some people and encouraged Wilson to fire the shots. Surveillance video in the area shows Robinson approach Wilson who is seen pulling the trigger.
Prosecutors say Wilson missed his intended target but hit a tourist in the leg. The woman survived, and so did another person who prosecutors say had a minor graze would.
On October 1, police announced the arrest warrants for Robinson and Wilson. The pair was arrested by U.S. Marshals outside of Nashville, TN, in the town of Franklin.
Wilson also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Robinson received a deferred five year sentence and was placed on three years probation.
Prosecutors say the victim in the case also approved of the guilty pleas.
“All too often we have seen the tragic results of people resorting to gunfire to settle their minor disputes,” District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro says in a statement announcing the guilty pleas. “In this case, we again see somebody willing to pull a gun and starting shooting on a city street crowded with visitors, without regard for the safety of innocent bystanders. This gunman now gets a few years to reflect upon the foolishness of his criminal conduct, and to give thanks that his victim’s life somehow was spared.”
At the time of the guilty pleas, Wilson was 20-years-old and Robinson was 21.