Ledrick Lataurus Ferguson, whose three-year-old son died in August 2022 while playing with his father’s unsecured firearm, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday morning.
He changed his original plea of not guilty to no contest during a hearing at the Judge Stephan P. Mickle, Sr. Criminal Courthouse, avoiding a trial. Ferguson, 50, will instead serve out his four concurrent sentences: 15 years for negligent aggravated manslaughter of a child, five years each on two counts of child neglect and 15 years for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. He will receive 777 days’ credit for the time he has already spent in jail.
Ferguson’s voice was barely above a murmur as his attorney, Aubroncee Martin, and presiding 8th Judicial Circuit Judge David Kreider laid out the terms of his plea offer.
The state declined to prosecute an additional count of unlawful firearm possession and a misdemeanor charge for unsafe firearm storage.
The victim’s mother, Kayla Shelynn Carter, is still considering her plea offer, according to her attorney, John Broling. She is charged with three felonies over the child’s death: manslaughter of a child and two counts of child neglect.
Ferguson and Carter’s child, three-year-old Ja’Kobe Ferguson, died in August 2022 from an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had been playing with the unsecured firearm, stored inside a couch’s console, at home when it went off.
Carter, 36, is expected to take the plea before the state revokes the offer on Oct. 29, Broling said. Kreider will set a trial date for early January should Carter decide against changing her plea to no contest.
“It’s not going to trial,” Broling said, seeming certain that his client would take the plea offer. Still, he added that “if the state goes to trial, I will be ready.”
Carter wrote letters to the court in November 2023, records show, asking for "a year and week or county time served or probation." She cited classes she had to take and being the sole caregiver of her disabled sister as reasons for the plea offer, which was not accepted.
No victim impact statements were made during Ferguson’s hearing on Tuesday.
He had been convicted of at least seven felonies over the past three decades, according to court records, including battery, robbery and grand theft auto. Carter had been convicted of only traffic offenses in the past. Both are from Gainesville and lived in the Lamplighter Mobile Home Park, just south of Gainesville’s airport.
Two of Ja’Kobe’s young siblings were with him at the time of the shooting and are the victims of the child neglect charges. As witnesses in the case, they told investigators that Ferguson regularly kept guns either in the couch’s console or on top of the refrigerator. Police said Ferguson, as a convicted felon, was not allowed to own or possess firearms.
The 2021 National Firearms Survey found that 15% of American firearm owners with children kept at least one firearm both loaded and unlocked. Since 2022, there have been at least 35 deaths from unintentional shootings by children in Florida, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
“The circumstances are always horrible whenever you have a child anywhere near a firearm,” said Darry Lloyd, the state attorney’s office public information officer. He added that many resources are available to the public on how to properly secure firearms.
“You hope that (the defendants) not only learn their lesson, but that any other person watching this also understands that they will be held criminally liable for their actions."