Man sentenced to 12 years in prison for fatal shooting in North Buffalo

A year ago, at a North Buffalo apartment, Holley became angry with a man because she believed he was selling her a different type of drug than the one she wanted, Sarah Holley said.

After Jacquette Holley attacked Jamin Haygood with a knife, according to Haygood’s defense attorney, he shot her in the head.

Despite losing her family, Sarah Holley said she didn’t want Haygood to spend the rest of her life in prison.

“I hope you get along honestly with God, man,” she told Haygood during a profanity-filled speech in court.

State Supreme Court Justice William Boller sentenced the 22-year-old Buffalo man to 12 years in prison followed by five years of parole.

Haygood, who at the time of the killing was on probation for gun possession, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in March.

Holley, 51, died after being shot at an apartment on Delaware Avenue, just south of Tacoma Avenue, around 8 p.m. on May 27, 2023.

Haygood was charged in June with murder, intimidation of a witness and gun possession.

For violating his probation in the gun possession case by committing the fatal shooting, Boller sentenced Haygood to seven years in prison. But the new sentence for that crime won’t mean a longer prison stay, as the judge ordered the sentence to run concurrently with the dozen he received for the fatal shooting.

Haygood was convicted of attempted second-degree criminal possession of a firearm on May 24, 2021, said Nicholas Texido, Haygood’s defense attorney.

Last year’s shooting occurred in direct response to a woman coming to Haygood while high on cocaine and with a knife in her hand, Texido said.

Haygood, who had more than a dozen supporters in the courtroom, acknowledges he should not have been in that situation — at that residence at that time and with a gun in the neighborhood , said his lawyer.

“He really didn’t have a choice at that point, Judge,” he said.

Haygood refused to address the court before Boller imposed the sentence.

During her comments in court and in an earlier phone interview with The Buffalo News, Sarah Holley said the Erie County District Attorney’s Office “botched” the case – she said prosecutors had said they were going to subpoena a witness who was absent. state, but the next morning Haygood pleaded.

The family was not given the opportunity to weigh in on the plea deal, she said.

Prosecutors also made a mistake during that conversation and revealed the witness’s name to her, she said.

The district attorney’s office, through a spokeswoman, denied Holley’s claims about the phone call.

Prosecutors have not released the name of a witness to the family, spokeswoman Kait Munro said in an email.

Holley’s family was also informed during that March 21 phone call that then-prosecutor John Flynn had to allow a plea in the case for a multitude of reasons, including because a witness was no longer cooperating , Munro said.

No subpoena had been issued at the time of the plea because the trial date was set for the end of April, according to Munro.

Prosecutors had evidence that Haygood was a drug dealer and Jacquette Holley was a drug user, but there was no evidence to show that Holley bought drugs from Haygood, she said.

A witness had told prosecutors that the altercation happened after Haygood slapped Holley while he was in the apartment’s kitchen for “making too much noise,” Munro said.

A witness said Holley was walking toward Haygood with a small steak knife when he shot him, Munro told The News.