Lake Superior Court Judge Samuel Cappas sentenced a Chicago man to 76 years Thursday for gunning down a friend who was flirting with his girlfriend online.
A jury convicted Lamont “Ski” Turentine, 32, last month in the Dec. 13, 2019 shooting death of Tyran “Moses” Bolling, 25. He was sentenced to 58 years for murder and 18 years on a gun enhancement.
He indicated he would appeal.
Hammond Police responded to an apartment building on the 4400 block of Henry Avenue. They found Bolling shot “multiple times” in the leg, chest and face.
Prosecutors said Turentine’s girlfriend Emani “Money” Edwards started flirting with Bolling, a longtime friend and former roommate, in revenge after she found him talking to other women.
She was charged in the case, then later granted immunity for her cooperation.
After the hearing, Angieleic Young, Bolling’s mother, said she had “some vindication” with the verdict. “I’ll take it.” Her son was “awesome,” a “Libra” and left behind a teen daughter.
It was unfortunate it was “someone he trusted,” she said.
Deputy Prosecutor Infinity Westberg said Bolling died a “slow” and “painful” death. He was “sabotaged” and “setup.” Bolling’s girlfriend’s witnessed his death. Her young son was in the apartment when he was killed outside.
Edwards was placed in a difficult position, she said. She was in the car, knowing Bolling would soon be killed. Then, she and her child went on the run with Turentine in Arkansas and Louisiana. In one incident, he punched her in front of a security guard at a Louisiana mall, Westberg said. The pair were arrested in 2023.
Turentine’s assertion that he was only friends with Edwards was a lie, the prosecutor said.
“No one jealously slays someone in the street over a friend,” Westberg said.
She asked for 80 years.
His lawyer Lakeisha Murdaugh said Turentine, then 26, had “virtually no criminal history.”
She acknowledged — as Westberg had argued — that he was charged during a stint in the U.S. Navy with a sexual assault case. However, it was reduced to disorderly conduct and he was discharged honorably.
The shooting “was an aberration to who Mr. Turentine was,” she said.
He told her not to argue a specific prison sentence. She asked for a lenient prison term.
Turentine declined to speak in court.
As he sentenced him, Cappas told Turentine he had been “tricking” Bolling — by pretending to message him as Edwards — to “lure” him to his death.
During Thursday’s court hearing, Bolling’s relatives spoke of their grief and betrayal.
His aunt Mary Montgomery said he was killed on her birthday. His absence left an “emptiness in my heart,” she said.
LaTretta Bolling, his sister, called him her “twin”, even though she was older. He was one of the “most important men in my life.”
His cousin said he was a talented rapper and was just starting to “grow into the man I always knew he could be.”
Rev. James Brown, speaking on Turentine’s behalf, said he not could speak to the case’s facts, but the allegations were “completely out of character” for the man he knew.
Turentine’s car appeared to be captured heading to Hammond from Chicago in the area near the time of Bolling’s shooting by traffic and gas station cameras, an affidavit shows.
A DNA hit on bullet casings led police to another man who knew Turentine, who was on an Illinois ankle monitor and verified on house arrest in Chicago at the time. Police asked how his DNA got on the bullet casings.
“I don’t know, probably gave someone some bullets…it’s Chicago,” he said, according to records.
“I can’t tell you he did that. We all felt like he did it, but there ain’t no witnesses,” the man said. “I don’t know if he did it.”
Investigators asked if he killed Bolling.
“Hell no, I loved Moses,” the man said.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
