Shooting of Victim Reflection Essay

Shooting of Victim Reflection Essay

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Shooting of Victim Reflection Essay

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‘Where’s my justice?’ shooting victim wonders as former Marine gets probation By DALE VINCENT

New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — “Where’s my justice? Where’s my justice?” shooting victim Josephine Otim cried Tuesday as she stood outside the courtroom where the former Marine who pulled the trigger was placed on probation for five years.

Hillsborough County Superior Court North Judge Gillian Abramson said she didn’t believe the New Hampshire State Prison system could give Thomas Landry, now 27, the treatment he needs for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She gave him suspended sentences of 7 1/2 to 15 years and 3 1/2 to seven years for the random shooting in which Otim was injured.

Abramson acknowledged that Otim, the mother of a young child, had come to this country from war-torn Sudan, “expecting and deserving sanctuary and security.”

But on the night of July 15, 2013, Otim was shot as she sat in friend Shaquwan’da Allen’s car on Somerville Street after completing a double shift as an LNA at a Bedford nursing home.

Landry, who police said had been drinking the night of the shooting and was on various medications — 26 prescription bottles bearing his name were found at his residence — walked up to Allen’s car, so close that if she had opened the door it would have hit him. It was then he fired the Sig Sauer P229 he carried in a back waist holster and hit Otim in the leg. After two surgeries, she still walks with a limp.

“I’ve been through wars …,” Otim said Tuesday in court. “You took me to the worst nightmare of my life … I can’t trust anyone because of you.”

Landry pleaded guilty to felonies of first-degree assault and criminal threatening.

The medical director for the New Hampshire State Prison System, Dr. David Potenza, told Abramson Tuesday there were programs, including medications, for veterans and other men with PTSD at the state prisons. But Landry’s new Massachusetts clinical psychologist, Dr. William Newman, said that his methods could “cure” Landry of his PTSD.

He said his treatment includes hypnosis, yoga and tai chi, meditation and mindfulness, but no medications; he has been seeing Landry twice a week since September.

“I’m optimistic about his prognosis,” Newman said.

Newman told Abramson he doesn’t believe Landry would be helped in prison. “They give medication and I know that’s not going to work,” he said.

Abramson said she was impressed with Landry’s reported progress and that he entered a plea that eliminated the need for a trial that would further traumatize Otim and Allen.

Saying the two women may not agree with her sentence, Abramson said: “I ask that you trust me.”

If there is any violation of probation, she promised, Landry will go to prison.

Conditions of the suspended sentences include 500 hours of community service within 18 months, continued in- and out-patient counseling, alcohol and drug screening, restitution to his victim and the victim compensation fund and a letter of apology to Otim and Allen.

Landry, who lived near the shooting scene at the time but now lives in Massachusetts, is barred from any contact with the two women and is barred from possessing firearms.

Abramson ordered review hearings every 90 days and said any violation of probation, which will include random urinalysis to ensure Landry isn’t using alcohol or marijuana, will result in a termination of probation and imposition of the jail sentences, which were suspended for 10 years and would be consecutive if imposed.

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Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Charlene Dulac, who had requested the prison sentences, said the night of the shooting Landry “lied to protect himself and avoid responsibility.” She said there’s no question he has a mental illness, but his “random and unprovoked attack … created another PTSD victim.”

Both the prosecution and defense can request sentence review by a three-judge panel.

‘Where’s my justice?’ shooting victim wonders as former Marine gets probation

Shooting of Victim Reflection Essay

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