A District man was sentenced to 10 years for the 2011 slaying of his fiance during an argument over another woman, authorities said.
Ronald G. Pickett, 27, pleaded guilty in June to voluntary manslaughter while armed in the death of 36-year-old Vanessa McGee.
According to prosecutors, on the evening of March 4, 2011, Pickett and McGee, who had dated for four years, went to a nightclub. On their way, Pickett stopped to pick up another woman. McGee did not know the woman.
The three stayed at the club for several hours, where they had several drinks. Then Pickett dropped the woman home about 2:15 a.m.
On their way home, Pickett and McGee had a heated dispute about the other woman and continued arguing inside the home on the 4700 block of B Street SE.
Pickett decided to leave and grabbed his 9mm pistol out of a plastic container next to their bed. As Pickett gathered the rest of his belongings, McGee tried to push him. She slipped on the floor and fell into her boyfriend, and the gun fired, shooting her in the top right shoulder, prosecutors said.
An autopsy showed the copper jacketed bullet traveled into the McGee’s lung and lodged inside her abdomen.
Initially, Pickett told authorities that someone else had shot his girlfriend.
After calling 911, Pickett rushed downstairs to the basement and hid the firearm under the seat cushion of a chair.
When the responding police arrived, Picket falsely told police that he had returned alone from a nightclub about 2 a.m. and had fallen asleep. About an hour later, he further stated, his girlfriend knocked on the door to their residence wearing only a pair of white shorts, saying, “Call the ambulance, I’ve been shot.”
Picket then said the two went upstairs to the bedroom, where he called 911 as she laid on the bed, going in and out of consciousness.
Under questioning by detectives, Pickett admitted to shooting McGee but said it was an accident.
