Six-Year-Old Son Witnesses Father Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison

By Samira Cobon [former] - March 11, 2024
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Victims |

On March 5, Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer sentenced 39-year-old Dominic Hicks to 35 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.

The jury found Hicks not guilty of second-degree murder but convicted him of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter on Nov. 15, 2023.

Hicks was also found guilty of firearm use in a felony violent crime, possession of a firearm with a felony conviction and having a handgun on his person. He will serve the first five years without the possibility of parole as well as five years of supervised probation on release in connection to an incident on the 500 block of West Mulberry on Dec. 22, 2022.

Defense attorney Michael Cooper asked Judge Schiffer if Hicks’ six-year-old son could be present during his sentencing. Judge Schiffer questioned Hicks’ request but ultimately granted permission.

The prosecution asked Judge Schiffer to sentence Hicks to the maximum term of 45 years, with the defense asking accommodation for the lesser offense.

Judge Schiffer offered an opportunity for those who wanted to make impact statements on behalf of the victim, 31-year-old Lattimore Thompson, to address the court.

Thompson’s mother said her son “did not deserve to die” and that Lattimore’s nine-year-old son talks to her “all the time about how he misses his father” and that “he thought he was going to come back home… He never came back home.” 

Meanwhile, Hicks’ uncle spoke about the trauma Hicks had endured and pleaded that Judge Schiffer sentence his nephew to the minimum so he could receive the care he needs.

The prosecution said “the victim is not here to defend or speak for himself” and that since Hicks’ actions took place at a gas station in downtown Baltimore where others could have been shot that “people there didn’t deserve to have their lives threatened.”

The prosecution concluded despite Hicks’ “previous charge that consisted of a nine-year sentence for attempted murder, he continued to carry an illegal firearm.”

Cooper concluded Hicks’ son was in the car at the time of the incident, and that it was an act of “imperfect self-defense.”

“He reacted to save himself and his son… Put yourself in his shoes,” he told the court.

Judge Schiffer said while Hicks was not the initial aggressor, he should not have had a gun in the first place. “What would have been a fist fight” turned into a loss and that Hicks’ carrying a gun showed that he planned on using it, which led to the 35 year sentence.