GRIFFIN, Ga. – Griffin police chief, Mike Yates, and two other officers write letters to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to urge mercy on man convicted of manslaughter, Eric Ferrell.
Ferrell pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2008, after the death of Quishanna Loynes.
Quishanna Loynes, a 29-year-old pregnant mother of three, was sitting in her first floor apartment with her young children. Residents began to argue in the parking lot, this is when the young Ferrell initially attempted to stop the fight. Bystander, Dequontist Lucas, instructed Ferrell to stay out of it, Lucas and Ferrell began to argue, and both men pulled and shot at one another. Neither one of the men were hit, however a stray bullet made its way through the window and hit Loynes in her back.
Tyshara Loynes, who was 9-years-old during that horrific night, stated that chaos followed that night and wouldn’t stop for years. The three children ended up in foster care after briefly living with their father before he went to prison.
The now 20-year-old, Tyshara Loynes, remembers Ferrell as being a friend to her mom’s fiance. She later stated that she doens’t “think by any means he’s a terrible person, but the effect of what he did was terrible and it led us to go through some terrible things,” according to AJC. Loynes believe that Ferrell is truly remorseful due to the fact that he, too, lost his mother at a young age.
Five-year-old Eric Ferrell lost his mother in 1982, it was a crime that was said to be felt throughout Dekalb County.
“Two men wearing ski masks tucked Eric in his bed at his south DeKalb home Monday night,” read the opening line in the front-page article in the Jan. 27, 1982, edition of the Atlanta Constitution. “Thirty minutes later his 26-year-old mother lay dead on the front porch from a gunshot wound.”
Although, Tyshara Loynes understands the shared experience she doesn’t believe that he should be released early.
“I’m not going to say he should be locked up forever,” said the 20-year-old who is a college student in Indianapolis, where her siblings also live. “But I think when you do something, you should suffer the consequences.”
Tyshara Loynes later states that she can see the different points of view. Her older sister, JaSha, being one that believes that Ferrell’s sentence was too long.
JaSha Loynes tells AJC that her mother “wouldn’t want that for him.”
The tentative parole date is set for August 2020, which will be an early release by just four years.
Chief Yates said that he wants to get Ferrell a job working for the city and isn’t worried about Ferrell messing up his parole.
