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AKRON, Ohio (WJW) — A 26-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for killing a woman outside a store in July 2023, shooting her from behind with a rifle as she was loading birthday balloons into a car, according to Akron police.
Jontae Watkins, 26, pleaded no contest in October and was found guilty of aggravated murder in the fatal shooting of Ernestine Stallings, 34, outside a Dollar Tree along West Market Street.
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“Ernestine Stallings was an innocent woman whose life was taken for no reason other than a reckless act of misidentification and a so-called attempt at justice,” Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich said in a statement. “This tragedy never should have happened. While today’s sentence cannot undo the devastation Jontae Watkins caused, we hope it offers Ernestine’s family some measure of closure.”…