An ex-con who gunned down the mother of his three young children in her Bellflower apartment was sentenced Friday to nearly 93 years to life in state prison.
Jurors deliberated less than an hour before finding Antowan Ladell Parker, 29, guilty March 21 of one count each of first-degree murder, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to Deputy District Attorney Steven Schreiner.
Jurors also found true allegations that Parker personally and intentionally discharged a firearm and that the Long Beach resident had a 2010 conviction for first-degree burglary with a person present.
Parker barged into Kenia Buckner’s apartment in the 16200 block of Cornuta Avenue on Jan. 16, 2017, with a gun, “told everyone to back off” and pointed a gun at her mother before shooting the 31-year-old victim six times, according to Schreiner.
The couple’s 9-year-old daughter heard screaming, went upstairs, looked through a window and witnessed the shooting, the prosecutor said.
Parker — whose 2010 conviction involved a burglary at a Long Beach apartment where Buckner lived seven years to the day before the killing — was at large until his arrest about three months later, the prosecutor said.
Authorities believe the killing was motivated by jealousy after Buckner, with whom Parker had an off-and-on relationship, formed a relationship with another man, according to Schreiner.