NEW ORLEANS – Twenty-year-old Haraquon Degruy will spend the next 40 years in prison for her role in the deaths of a Metairie father and son who were shot to death during a 2015 robbery.
Degruy served as the getaway driver for 19-year-old Dexter Allen, who broke into the home of 56-year-old David Pace just before midnight on April 22, 2015 and shot him in the head with a stolen shotgun, killing him instantly.
Allen then forced 25-year-old Nicholas Pence, who tried to come to the aid of his father, to lay on the ground before shooting him in the head as well.
Degruy pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter after the Pence family told the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office that they did not want to endure another trial.
“They were ready to prosecute, but we couldn’t do a trial again,” Beth Pence told 24th Judicial District Court judge Ray Steib. “It would have been too much.”
Degruy was originally charged as a principal to second-degree murder before the plea.
Steib sentenced Degruy to the maximum punishment for manslaughter and to two years for each of the 19 counts of simple burglary, according to the DA’s office.
Steib ran the sentences concurrently and ordered that Degruy serve the punishment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
