BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A woman who shot and killed her daughter’s boyfriend during a confrontation outside his home received a sentence Thursday of 40 years to life in prison and is asking for forgiveness.
On the morning of Aug. 10, 2021, Javontae Tervell Green was shot on Eye Street between Second and Third streets. The 29-year-old died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Police arrested Jerrollyn Hunt the next day, and in September a jury convicted her of second-degree murder and found a firearm enhancement to be true.
In a copy of a letter obtained by 17 News, Hunt, 42, wrote she fired the deadly shot while defending her adult daughter.
“I am a mother not a murderer!” Hunt wrote.
She asked Green’s family to forgive her.
“My heart has been heavy knowing that my story hasn’t been heard due to counsel saying it was probably best that I didn’t go on the stand,” Hunt wrote.
Before imposing sentence, Judge Judith K. Dulcich said she understands “circumstances of great emotion” were involved. Hunt has no prior criminal record.
Hunt’s sister, Cynthia Stewart, 50, spoke through tears outside the courtroom, saying her sister is a loving person. She said Hunt carried a gun because she had previously been robbed, and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hunt wouldn’t fire a shot without reason, Stewart said.
“It was self-defense,” she said. “My sister’s not like that.”
Hunt’s attorney, Chief Assistant Public Defender Tanya Richard, declined comment.
A member of Green’s family wrote to 17 News saying Hunt never showed remorse during court proceedings, and she murdered a loving father who was celebrating his young daughter’s birthday.
The shooting
According to court documents, Hunt told police her daughter and Green were dating and Green had taken her car keys. She, her daughter and a couple other women arrived at Green’s home to retrieve them.
They knocked on the front door but no one answered, the daughter told police, then she heard a crash and saw someone had broken the apartment’s front window, according to the documents.
Green came outside and followed her as she ran to her car, the daughter said according to the documents. She got in and Green hit the trunk and rear window and blocked her path, according to the documents.
Hunt, in her letter, says Green wielded a large stick.
But a witness told police Green was attacked by several women armed with sticks, and Green grabbed a stick from one of them. The witness said Green attempted to defend himself and was walking backward when shot.
Hunt’s daughter said in the documents she put her head down to avoid being hit by glass as Green pummeled the car.
She heard a single shot, looked up and saw Green on the ground and her mother running away, the documents say.
Hunt wrote that she armed herself, and when Green threw the stick at her she flinched and pulled the trigger “like a reflex.”
According to the documents, Hunt told police she shot Green out of concern for her daughter’s safety. She expressed remorse, an investigator wrote in the documents.
