A Tampa woman is facing a murder charge after a person she tried to lure into a robbery through a dating app shot and killed her brother in self defense, Hillsborough County Sheriff's officials said. Tat'yana Mekeva Gaston, 23, was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the May 31 shooting, according to court documents. Gaston was released from the Hillsborough County jail the day of her arrest after she posted $15,000 bail, records show. Police say Gaston matched with a person on the dating app BLK posing as a 22-year-old woman named "Jada." She asked the person, who is not named in court records, to meet her at Kain Palms Apartments, where her brother, Jermon Kennard, 18, was waiting nearby to rob the person, the records state. https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime...meet-up-ends-in-robbery-attempt-and-homicide/ Tampa dating app meetup ends in robbery attempt and homicide, Tampa Bay Times, Mary Claire Molly, June 8, 2022 I disagree with the use of the felony murder legal doctrine in cases like this. Accomplices should not be charged for criminal deaths. The criminal who died knew what they were getting into, and chose to take that risk. This seems like just looking for excuses for more punishment. I don't even think these felony murder laws were originally meant to apply in these situations, but overtime prosecutors applied them to these situations and eventually it just became an accepted part of the law. People in these areas were very "tough on crime" and didn't care what happened to criminals, any excuse to put them in prison as long as possible. I think part of the issue too is they are just looking for someone to give punishment too, someone to blame, and they can't punish a criminal who is dead, so they just want to punish the surviving criminals more instead. It's an innate human psychological response. In my view this doesn't make sense and isn't fair.
He caused his own death. It's hard to argue that she is "responsible" for his death, because he voluntarily chose to act on her information, knowing full well just as much about the situation as she did. I do not see any point to holding her responsible for his death. There is no point. It is not justice. If it had been the robbery victim who died, the situation might be different.
