CINCINNATI — The man responsible for the death of a West Price Hill mother will spend less than two years in prison, a judge decided on Thursday.
Judge Robert Goering handed down a sentence of nine months for the charge of reckless homicide to which 24-year-old Zachary Barnhorst pleaded guilty. The specifications added to the charge carried an additional nine-month sentence, which Goering said would be served consecutively.
"Clearly there are no winners in this particular case," said Goering. "There is nothing that the court can do to undo any of the events or to bring any more peace."
Barnhorst was charged after 44-year-old Brandy Lawless was found on May 3, 2023, lying on the sidewalk on Sunset Avenue outside of her West Price Hill home. Cincinnati police determined she'd been shot in the chest.
Barnhorst's defense attorney said he'd agreed to give a ride to a man he'd just met a few days before, when someone smashed the back window of his car; Barnhorst claimed to see Lawless standing behind the car with what he thought was a gun.
Lawless's mother said she doesn't believe anyone could mistakenly think her daughter had a gun in her hands that day.
"Very emotional right now. Our justice system sucks ... She died in minutes on the sidewalk and they want to claim that he thought a baseball bat was a gun," said Charlene Huber after the sentencing. "So he kills her and it's OK with our justice system. Well, it's not."
Lawless' husband died years before she was fatally shot, and friends said she was a dedicated single mother of two — in addition to taking many fighting battles with addiction under her wing.
"She helped a lot of people that were recovering from drugs, she helped a lot of different people," Tamra Goodin, Lawless' childhood friend, said after her death in 2023.
Lawless had overcome addiction in her past, taking what she experienced in her recovery journey to help others going through their own, family and friends said.
Lawless also spent five years as a program director at Serenity Recovery Network in Cincinnati.
"Now my daughter's dead, her kids have no mama, no daddy and it ain't even right," said Huber. "I don't even know how a judge can do this. How do they live with themselves? It's not right."
Barnhorst was arrested and charged the same day Lawless was found dead. When he was arrested, Barnhorst initially pleaded not guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter, but in February he agreed to enter a guilty plea for the reduced charge of reckless homicide.
