SOUTH BEND — A St. Joseph County judge Monday morning sentenced a South Bend man to 30 years in prison, the maximum allowed under his plea agreement, for his role in the 2006 shooting death of a 16-year-old girl.

Judge Jerome Frese ordered Terry Waddell, 22, to serve the sentence after hearing tearful testimony from Yvonne Fountain, mother of victim JaVonda Tharbs.

Fountain told the judge how JaVonda was the “motivator” in her family, how much her teachers at Washington High School liked her, and how excited she was to have recently been selected a Washington cheerleader.

“She would tell me all of the time, ‘Mom, you’re the best mom in the world,’” Fountain said. “I said, ‘How do you know?’ And she would say, ‘Because I love you so much.’”

Waddell is one of five individuals, along with Larry Mitchell, Jason Reeves, Jermaine Reeves and Clover Smith, whom prosecutors have charged in JaVonda’s murder. She was fatally shot while visiting her older sister’s Beacon Heights apartment on April 26, 2006, Washington’s prom night.

As a sophomore, JaVonda was too young to attend prom, but she had been hoping to attend an after-prom party that night.

The defendants plotted the shooting in retaliation for the shooting three days earlier of Kay DeBerry, mother to Waddell and the Reeves brothers. Waddell had given the gun to Mitchell, who mistook JaVonda for a man they believed had shot DeBerry, who survived, prosecutors say.

DeBerry’s case remains unsolved. Her shooting was believed to have been one more in a string of retaliatory strikes in a long-running feud between rival gangs.

Before learning his sentence, Waddell was given the chance to speak. He turned to Fountain.

“I want to apologize,” he said. “It might not mean anything ... I can’t take back anything, but I am sorry. I am truly sorry.”

Fountain nodded her head slowly.

“I had already forgiven him,” she told the judge, “but I hope one day he realizes the hatred he carries in him is going to mess him up for the rest of his life.”

Frese agreed.

“You have to get out of the life of handguns and revenge,” Frese told Waddell, who has two prior felony handgun convictions. “These feuds are just craziness. Nobody ends up any better, it only gets worse. If any good can come of it, use whatever influence you have to convince people who will listen to you that this is the wrong road to go down, and that all of this madness should stop.”

After the hearing, Fountain said she was pleased with the sentence. She said she is confident the feud has ended, if for no other reason than because most of the men involved are now in prison.

“The prosecutor’s office, they’re just doing a wonderful job,” she said.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ken Cotter had asked for the plea agreement’s maximum of 30 years in prison, saying Waddell “does not have the respect for human life that I think is important for our society.”

Frese technically sentenced Waddell to 45 years in prison, but suspended 15 years. He ordered four years of probation following Waddell’s prison release, which would come in 15 years with good-time behavior credit. Should Waddell commit a new crime within four years of his release, he could be forced to return to prison for those 15 suspended years, Frese said.

A jury in December convicted Mitchell of murder. He received a 65-year prison term, and the Indiana Court of Appeals recently denied his appeal.

Prosecutors in July filed conspiracy to commit murder charges against Waddell, Jason Reeves, 31, and Jermaine Reeves, 28. Clover Smith, 31, Jason Reeves’ girlfriend, is charged with assisting a criminal.

A warrant remains outstanding for Jermaine Reeves’ arrest. Cotter asked anyone with information on his whereabouts to call Metro Homicide detectives James Taylor or Brian Young, 235-5009.

Staff writer Jeff Parrott:
jparrott@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6320