A Magnolia, Arkansas, woman was sentenced to 25 years in prison this week in connection with a fatal shooting in Texarkana in 2020 investigators describe as drug-related.
Cierra Nicole Gentry, 35, pleaded guilty to murder in Miller County circuit court this week and received the same sentence her co-defendant, Damien Damon Butler, 27, received last week.
Gentry and Butler were charged with capital murder in the case initially but pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
Butler and Gentry are accused of killing 24-year-old Devonta Biddle while in the process of burglarizing his brother’s house in the 1200 block of Linden Street on Feb. 27, 2020, according to a probable cause affidavit. Biddle’s brother had allegedly been warned that someone was watching his home and Biddle and Biddle’s girlfriend were at the residence to house sit.
Biddle’s girlfriend allegedly told police that someone came in the house on Linden Street and Biddle went to confront them in his brother’s bedroom. The girlfriend found Biddle suffering from a gunshot wound.
