{"id":20515,"date":"2013-04-08T16:41:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T20:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=20515"},"modified":"2013-04-08T16:41:06","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T20:41:06","slug":"store-owner-avoids-jail-in-teens-shooting-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=20515","title":{"rendered":"Store Owner Avoids Jail In Teen\u2019s Shooting Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 33-year-old West Tampa business owner was sentenced to five years probation in connection with the death of a teenager. She is accused of lying during the investigation.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, Ms. Taquanda Baker, <\/strong>the owner of Baker\u2019s Mini Mart, 2504 N. Armenia, pleaded guilty to shooting within an occupied building, tampering with physical evidence, and making a false report to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The shooting death of 16-year-old Quintavius Moore,<\/strong> took place on April 16, 2012. At the time, Ms. Baker <\/strong>said <\/strong>the shooting was in self-defense. se.<\/p>\n

Initially, Ms. Baker<\/strong> told police that Moore <\/strong>entered the store around 10:45 a.m., and asked for change. Approximately 30 minutes later, Moore <\/strong>is alleged to have returned to the store, this time armed with a handgun and allegedly displayed it.<\/p>\n

Ms. Baker<\/strong> told police she pulled her own handgun and accidentally fired a shot into the ground. She then fired a shot at Moore,<\/strong> striking him. Moore<\/strong> was taken to St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital, where he died from his injuries.<\/p>\n

After the shooting, Ms. Baker <\/strong>flagged down a passing law enforcement officer and made him aware of the shooting.<\/p>\n

During the course of the investigation, investigators determined that evidence at the scene did not match Ms. Baker\u2019s<\/strong> account of the shooting, and she was arrested.<\/p>\n

Police said a person of interest was seen on the store surveillance video leaving the scene. However, police have not made any other arrests in the case.<\/p>\n

Ms. Laura McElroy,<\/strong> spokesperson for the Tampa Police Department said it was a very difficult case to investigate. The investigation led police to several cities before they tracked down Kenton Omar Homer,<\/strong> who was the alleged boyfriend of Ms. Baker<\/strong> in jail in Philadelphia, PA.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in jail on narcotics charges and being deported because he was an illegal alien. When he went to I.C.E., we had a flag on his name. During the interview, he admitted the shooting. Witness accounts varied his account of the incident and it was ruled Justifiable Homicide,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mark Cox,<\/strong> spokesman for the Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office said, \u201cNo one was charged in the case because we could not disprove the assertion that the teenager was committing a robbery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Baker<\/strong> was sentenced to five years probation. If she violates the probation, she will be required to be incarcerated for the remainder of the sentence.<\/p>\n

Additionally, she must repay $3,000 in investigative costs and complete 100 hours of community service, 50 of which must be with a law enforcement agency. She was also adjudicated guilty and had to surrender any firearms confiscated during the investigation, Cox <\/strong>said.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor A 33-year-old West Tampa business owner was sentenced to five years probation in connection with the death of a teenager. She is accused of lying during the investigation. Last Thursday, Ms. Taquanda Baker, the owner of Baker\u2019s Mini Mart, 2504 N. Armenia, pleaded guilty to shooting within an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}