PROVIDENCE – A Providence man has been handed two life sentences and an additional 50 years in prison for a drive-by shooting that killed a 24-year-old Warwick woman who was talking to a friend on a Providence street, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said.
Isaiah Pinkerton, 26, was sentenced Friday following his June conviction for murder and nine other felony charges in the death of Miya Brophy-Baermann, a University of Rhode Island graduate who worked as a speech-language pathologist.
Brophy-Baermann was shot on Aug. 21, 2021, a Sunday morning, while she was standing along Olney Street talking with Sheron Robinson. She had earlier attended a party nearby. Police said previously they didn’t believe she was the shooter’s intended target.
The case seemed cold for more than a year
For more than a year, no one was arrested in the murder, but on Aug. 24, 2022, Pinkerton and another Providence man, Shawn Mann, were charged by secret indictment. Mann, 32, still faces trial.
“It has been more than two years since Miya lost her life, and while we are painfully aware that nothing can return her to her family and friends, I hope today’s significant sentence brings some semblance of peace to everyone impacted by this unnecessary and tragic loss,” Neronha said in a press releasing announcing the sentence.