Man Pleads Guilty in Fatal Shooting at Party : Lancaster: Charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter partly because witnesses were unwilling to testify.

A Lancaster man accused of shooting his half brother to death pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter Wednesday.

Eric Lamont Gunn, 23, made the plea in Superior Court as part of an agreement with prosecutors that will result in him getting a nine-year prison sentence. Formal sentencing will take place July 14.

Gunn fatally shot Rayshaun Love, 17, at a pay-to-enter party Dec. 19 in Lancaster. Two other men were wounded when the party turned violent.

Gunn was initially charged with a count of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing of rock cocaine, which was found on him at the time of his arrest.

Under the terms of the plea bargain, entered before Judge Haig Kehiayan, Gunn plead guilty to a voluntary manslaughter charge and admitted use of a firearm.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven D. Ogden said the plea bargain was struck partly because of a lack of witnesses willing to testify in court.

Although there were about 100 people at the party, only one eyewitness, Darius Perry, came forward, Ogden said. Perry was one of the two men injured during the shooting and while still hospitalized he identified Gunn as the shooter.

But during a preliminary hearing in March, Perry answered, “I ain’t sure,” when asked if Gunn was the one who shot him.

Furthermore, Ogden said, if the case had gone to trial he believes members of Gunn’s family would have said Gunn was home at the time of the shooting.

Ogden also said the circumstances of the fatal shooting were more appropriate for a voluntary manslaughter conviction than murder.

“It’s a classic shooting on a sudden quarrel,” Ogden said.

Gunn, according to court records, allegedly began firing a small handgun after Perry spilled beer on Gunn’s shoes. Prosecutors said that Gunn shot Perry in the shoulder and then fired into the crowd, fatally shooting his half-brother and wounding another person.

Manuel R. Martinez Jr., the public defender representing Gunn, said the plea bargain was in Gunn’s best interest considering the risk of the case going to trial.

“If he went to trial he was facing 30 years to life, if convicted,” Martinez said. “And while the evidence was in my view very weak, technically it was sufficient for conviction.”

With the deal entered Wednesday, Martinez said Gunn might be released from prison in as little as 4 1/2 years.

The plea bargain pleased Martha Jordan, the mother of both Love and Gunn, according to Martinez. “She was happy that the case had been settled in this fashion and she would be seeing her son come home in a reasonable period of time.”

In the aftermath of Love’s killing, the Lancaster City Council passed a law that outlaws pay-to-enter parties in residential neighborhoods. A fine of $500 and/or six months in jail can be imposed on anyone holding such parties.

At least three people, including Love, have died and numerous others have been injured at pay-to-enter parties in the Antelope Valley since 1990.