Williamsport, Pa. — Ja’hsir Kasheem Legare, who shot and killed Ahmeen Palmer in 2024 outside of a TGI Friday’s in Loyalsock, pleaded guilty to the killing Monday morning.
Legare, 18, will serve up to 15 years — or as little as seven years and six months — in prison as part of a deal with the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office for pleading guilty to manslaughter and illegal possession of a firearm. His sentencing is set for Sept. 15.
Palmer was 15 years old when Legare gunned him down in the restaurant’s parking lot. Legare shot Palmer once in each leg and again in the head.
Legare’s own mother, who drove him to the business where the murder was committed, took the stand against her son in earlier hearings.
“As a mother, I was supposed to go there and see what was going on,” Johneice Legare told Lycoming County District Attorney Tom Marino while she was on the stand. She admitted to driving Ja’hsir to the restaurant after receiving calls from him and her other son about the victim being there.
Johneice admitted to seeing her son grab something from his waistband seconds before shots rang out.
Police found a gun underneath the victim, but it’s not known if the teen fired the weapon. It’s also unclear if any of the five 9mm shell casings found at the scene match the gun found under Palmer or if his hands were tested for gunshot residue, Trooper Brian Siebert testified.
Legare was charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault attempts to cause serious bodily injury and with a deadly weapon, possession of a gun by minor, illegal possession of a weapon, recklessly endangering another person, criminal mischief, and criminal use of a communication device.
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