By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com
A man convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend in 2009 has been sentenced to 55 years to life in prison.
Demario Richard Wiggins, 32, was sentenced today by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Russell Hom, according to a Sacramento District Attorney's Office news release. A jury in October convicted him of second-degree murder in the death of Tersha Brown, 26.
On July 20, 2009, Sacramento police officers found Brown in her apartment in the 600 block of Garden Highway, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Wiggins shot Brown after the two had an argument.
Brown's mother, Sharon Brown, told The Bee following Wiggins' conviction in October that her daughter had been having trouble in her relationship with Wiggins, an ex-convict who had been out of prison a few years before he met Tersha Brown.
Tersha Brown grew up in Vacaville and played softball at New Mexico State University, then at Sonoma State University, where she majored in English. She stayed in the Bay Area following graduation and eventually was hired as a human relations manager for the upscale cookery company Williams-Sonoma.
Sharon Brown said one of Tersha Brown's girlfriends in Vacaville introduced her to Wiggins in Sacramento.
Sharon Brown said Wiggins used her daughter, taking her BMW to deal drugs in Stockton and Sacramento, and running her tens of thousands of dollars into debt. Family members said Wiggins threatened to kill Tersha Brown's grandmother and other family members if she didn't give him money.
A prosecutor's trial brief said Wiggins had $3,500 in cash, as well as marijuana, methamphetamine and a digital scale commonly used for drug dealing, in his car at the time of his arrest.
According to the trial brief, Wiggins jammed a gun into Tersha Brown's face with enough force to cut the inside of her mouth 11 days before the killing. During the fatal argument, he pulled the gun again.
Wiggins told police officers when he fired the shot, he didn't know that the gun was loaded.
Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.
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