KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A gang member could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison without parole after he was convicted of second-degree murder in a 2012 shooting.
The Knox County District Attorney’s Office announced Jamar Laquinn Frazier, 33, of Knoxville, has been convicted of second-degree murder.
A sentencing date has been set for June 24. He faces 15 to 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors will ask the judge for the maximum sentence of 25 years, a district attorney’s release states.
A 2012 Knoxville Police investigation showed that Frazier was part of a group called the Black Crime Family, a group Frazier claimed to be a rap record label but authorities know to be a criminal street gang affiliated with the Gangster Disciples.
Frazier suspected the victim stole two ounces of marijuana from the group. Other members of the group tracked the victim to Overbrook Drive, assaulted him, and held him there until Frazier arrived.
Witnesses at the scene who saw the fight said Frazier arrived in a maroon Jeep Cherokee and chased the victim into the woods, brandishing a pistol. Frazier then shot the victim in the head.
He then fled to Chattanooga where he was apprehended 15 days later by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Frazier was convicted in July 2019 of first-degree premeditate murder in the same case and received a life sentence at that time. An appeals court found that the Knox County court in the first case admitted evidence that was not allowed.