A 25-year-old southwest Harnett County man was sentenced to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his 22-year-old girlfriend stemming from Jan. 8, 2022.
Terrell Lewis Jackson was sentenced on June 30 to 44 to 65 months in the North Carolina Department of Correction with credit for 12 days in jail.
Superior Court Judge C. Winston Gilchrist gave Jackson a “mitigated term.” He had no prior convictions, according to eCourts.
Jackson made an Alford plea in the case, in which he did not admit guilt but acknowledged that the prosecution had enough evidence for a conviction. A charge of discharge of a weapon into an occupied property was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Jackson was originally charged with second-degree murder.
According to a court document, the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office responded to 4685 Rosser Pittman Road, north of Barbecue and south of the Carolina Lakes Golf Course.
Jamaica Dei’Ona Allen was found dead on scene. She was sitting in the driver’s seat of a black 2004 Mercedes SLK 230 Kiompressor, according to a court document. She was the mother of Jackson’s children.
Janet Jones, Jackson’s grandmother, called 911, the document states. A semi-automatic handgun, Glock 23 .40 caliber, was found on the driver’s seat of the vehicle, but Allen had a gunshot wound on her back left shoulder that authorities believe was the entry wound. An exit wound was found on her bottom right breast.
Police believe the situation was staged as a suicide. A bullet was found in the vehicle’s center console.
Jackson was held on a $75,000 bond following his arrest. He listed an address on Happy Lane, one mile south of where Allen was found, according to a court document.