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SALT LAKE CITY — A man who admitted to mistakenly sending 29 bullets toward an infant's bedroom in an attempted drive-by shooting pledged to eschew gang life entirely if he is released from jail, while prosecutors called to send him to prison.
With the crowded courtroom coming to its feet behind him, Tyrel Maleek Foreman told a judge Monday that he takes responsibility for the things he did while associated with a gang.
"I would like to say I'm accountable. I know what I did was wrong. I can't believe I was involved in something so stupid," he said.
Foreman, who turned 20 last month, was charged with 29 second-degree felony counts of discharge of a firearm — one for every shell casing recovered at the scene — following the July 21 shooting. Nineteen of those shots ended up in the bedroom where an 18-month-old girl was sleeping. The child was saved because her crib was pressed against the wall beneath a window, shielded by a section of exterior brick.
Foreman pleaded guilty in January to two of those counts while the rest were dismissed as part of a plea deal. At the same time, he admitted to a separate gang-related shooting case in South Salt Lake two days before the shooting at the apartment, which wounded a "rival gang member."
Meanwhile, he is still facing a case in Davis County, where he is charged with felony counts of theft and burglary.
Prosecutor Clint Heiner said Monday that Foreman's actions warranted three consecutive prison sentences, calling it "one of the most egregious cases that has come across my desk."
However, after hearing arguments on both sides, 3rd District Judge Keith Kelly didn't hand down a decision, citing conflicting recommendations in two separate presentence reports from Adult Probation and Parole and Utah Sentencing Alternatives. After both sides submit briefs about the recommendations, Kelly will conclude Foreman's sentencing on June 24.
At the time of his arrest, the Metro Gang Unit listed Foreman, aka "Lucky Loc," as one of its top 10 most wanted fugitives. It's a life Foreman promised never to go back to Monday as his defense attorney, Larry Long, presented Foreman with his own 28-year sobriety chip and had him "swear an oath" he had changed.
"I swear on my sacred oath I will never be involved in gangs again," Foreman said, emulating his attorney's pronunciation as he accepted what he called his "sacred amulet."
Of Foreman's almost year in jail so far, psychiatrist Trent Holmberg took the witness stand at the hearing to say that Foreman has been a "model prisoner" who has passed his time unlike "a typical gang member."
"I think he's a good candidate for rehabilitation," Holberg said, calling Foreman's desire to escape gang life "pretty clear."
Man arrested after firing 29 shots at apartment, police say
Police have identified and arrested the man allegedly responsible for firing more than 20 shots at an apartment with two young children inside.While in jail, Holmberg explained, Foreman sought his GED. Though he failed it twice because of his scores on the math section, Foreman continued tp study until he passed the test and went on to be a tutor for other inmates. He also graduated from three 12-step programs and put together a plan to continue studying and pursue a career.
Despite Foreman's impressive work, Heiner argued that his violent crimes still warrant time in prison, where he urged Foreman to continue his progress there.
"The mere fact that several innocent individual's lives could have been taken, I think shows that the court needs to pause and seriously look at protecting the community," Heiner said. "When you almost kill an 11-month-old and a 2-year-old, and then you shoot another human being, it warrants prison."
In the wake of the apartment shooting, which police called a case of "mistaken identity," the father of the little girl said he and his wife were asleep in the living room when shots rang out. A 2-year-old boy was sleeping in another room. When the gunfire stopped, he rushed into his daughter's room to find his daughter shaking and crying "like she never had before."
"I can't believe that somebody thinks that's an OK thing to do. Those slugs are serious," the father said at the time. "This is not how you act out. You could have killed children who could have lost their whole future."
The family immediately moved out of the apartment, which they had moved into just three months earlier, and relocated after the shooting. The financial burden they took on to move kept them from attending Monday's hearing, Heiner said.
Heiner also pointed out that Foreman's co-defendant in the case, 20-year-old Jordan James Hansen, faced the same charges in both cases, accepted the same plea, and was sentenced in April by Judge Vernice Trease to three terms of three to 15 years in prison with a gang enhancement.
Prosecutors recommended that the sentences run concurrently, Heiner said, because Hansen agreed to cooperate with the state and testify in other cases.
