CHARLESTON, W.Va. –A South Charleston woman receiving a maximum of ten years in a state correctional facility for being a prohibited person carrying a firearm.
Lydia Spencer
Lydia Spencer, 34, was sentenced by Judge Jennifer Bailey Thursday afternoon. She was a prohibited person with a firearm, because of a prior felony conviction of being in possession with the intent to distribute heroin.
In January, Spencer entered a Kennedy Plea for that charge after shooting a woman in the back during an argument at the Riverwalk Kroger in May 2023. When police apprehended Spencer, she told them that she had the gun in her purse. When police found the gun, they noted that it had one spent shell casing in the cylinder.
Within the plea agreement, all other charges were dropped against her. A Kennedy Plea is not admitting to the criminal act and asserts innocence, while agreeing that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict them.
Prior to the sentencing, Robby Long, Spencer’s attorney, asked Bailey to consider that this was self-defense because Spencer claimed that the victim she shot and the women she was with, attacked her and that she suffers from PTSD because she was shot in the head in 2011 from an ex-boyfriend. And that family and friends went out of their way to write letters in support of Spencer. He asked Bailey to consider giving a four-year determinate sentence, with her being able to serve it under electronic monitoring.
Spencer also addressed the court before she was sentenced.
During her remarks, she apologized to the person she shot and to all of the people who were inside the Kroger store that day and witnessed the shooting.
She also acknowledged her mistakes that day.
“I did not have any intentions on harming or traumatizing anyone that day, I made a huge mistake in judgment out being in fear for my life but that does not accuse my actions,” Spencer said. “I take full responsibility for my actions.”
Bailey acknowledged the time spent writing the letters, however she said that she has a duty to protect those employees, the public, and the officers who respond to these incidents.
“I have, of course a duty to consider what the public good requires and indeed what the public demands that I do as a presiding judge here,” Bailey said.
Along with the 10-year sentence, Bailey also ordered Spencer to pay a $10,000 fine.