BEAUMONT, Texas — A 19-year-old Southeast Texas man was sentenced Monday morning to eight years in prison for his part in a deadly shooting outside a club in the west end of Beaumont earlier this year.
Jahmirious Spraggins, 19, pleaded guilty previously to two counts of attempted aggravated assault in connection with a fatal shooting outside DMoney Daiquiris Lounge at 6632 Phelan Blvd in March 2023.
The shooting left Geraldo Escamilla, 30, of Beaumont, dead and wounded Armando Camargo, Jr., 25, according to file stories.
Spraggins was sentenced in Criminal District Court by Judge John Stevens who gave him eight years behind bars for one count and 10 years on probation for the other count.
Stevens also ordered him to pay $16,500 in restitution to Camargo, the wounded man.
Spraggins' probation will run concurrently with his prison sentence, but if he violates the terms of his probation while in prison or after he is released or paroled he could then be sentenced 10 years on the other count.
He will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least half of his eight-year sentence.
HIs defense attorney asked Stevens to consider Spraggins' young age in determining his sentence and asked for probation.
He noted that Spraggins was still in high school when the fatal shooting happened and told the judge he had been "caught up with the wrong people and the wrong situation."
Prosecutor Mike Laird disagreed.
"He got the biggest break in the world by being charged with what he's charged with because he was a party to a murder and an aggravated assault," Laird told the court.
Laird noted that Camargo lost his livelihood because of his injuries after being shot.
Police say that Spraggins admitted to detectives that he had been involved in the shooting according to a probable cause affidavit in the case.
He told police that while the other two suspects were firing, he tried to fire a Glock .40 caliber handgun but that it didn't go off because it was either jammed or the safety was on according to the affidavit.
Spraggins also asked for leniency from Judge Stevens telling him that he was intoxicated and in the wrong place at the wrong time when the shooting happened.
He also told Stevens he was a father saying, "I got a son, his birthday (is) today."
Stevens did not let him off the hook, telling Spraggins that his intoxication was not a defense and that he must take responsibility for whatever he does while being "voluntarily intoxicated."
Spraggins' fatherhood also did not sway the judge who asked, "You throw your child in front of this court and try to hide behind your child?"
Two other men, Armani Rashad Wallace, 20 and Jaren Battles, 18, both of Orange, were indicted in April 2023 for murder and aggravated assault in connection with the case. Neither of them have gone to trial yet in the case.
Just before 3 a.m. on Saturday, March 18, 2023, police were sent to the West End Crossing apartments at 6550 Phelan Blvd for a trespassing complaint about people parking at the apartments according to a news release from the Beaumont Police Department.
The caller told police people were parking and then walking over to the neighboring parking lot of DMoney Daiquiris Lounge at 6632 Phelan Blvd.
Officers were on the scene when several gunshots were fired in the parking lot of the club the release said. Following the shooting more than a dozen evidence markers cold be seen in the parking lot of the club.
When officers stopped a Mercedes party van carrying 14 people near the scene, a 16-year-old ran from the van but was caught by police.
Police found three guns on the 16-year-old and then found another five guns in the Mercedes van the release said.
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About a third of a mile east at the Burger King on Phelan Blvd officers found the body of Escamilla in the passenger seat of a gray GMC Sierra pickup truck along with the wounded driver.
The driver of the truck, which was hit by 27 rounds, was shot in the leg according to Judge Collins.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.