JAMEL Hatcher was convicted of shooting the mother of his child — though he has always maintained the killing was an accident.
He tells his side of the story in the new series of Netflix’s hit true crime docuseries I Am A Killer.
Jamal Hatcher features in episode one of the fifth series of I Am A Killer[/caption]
The poster for season 5 of I Am A Killer[/caption]
The crime
On May 6, 2005, Jamel D. Hatcher, who was 21 years old at the time, shot and killed the mother of his child, Danielle Boone, in an apartment on Sunnyslope Road, Maple Heights, Cleveland.
She died instantly, with Hatcher saying the shooting was an accident and he was intoxicated at the time.
Following the incident, he was initially jailed for about a month.
But Hatcher was released due to a lack of evidence — the authorities needed time to test the DNA recovered from the scene.
Approximately a year later, these test results led to new charges against Hatcher, resulting in his re-arrest.
Mental competency
However, he was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial and sent to a psychiatric clinic for evaluation.
After treatment Hatcher was found to be competent enough to face trial.
In 2008, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and a separate offense of felonious assault.
This meant he avoided a trial on the more serious charge of aggravated murder and secured a lighter sentence.
Incarceration
Following a plea agreement, Hatcher received a 20-year prison sentence.
The breakdown of this term includes 10 years for involuntary manslaughter, with an additional three years added for the use of a gun during the crime, and seven years for felony assault.
Hatcher had already spent 709 days in jail, which reduced his effective time served by nearly two years.
He is incarcerated at Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield, Ohio.
Hatcher still maintains that the killing was an accident.
You don’t have to come to prison and just let yourself just waste away. You can grow. Look at me. I am a person who has achieved it
Jamel Hatcher
Upon his eventual release, he will be required to serve five years on parole.
I Am A Killer
The case is featured in the first episode of the fifth season of Netflix’s highly-acclaimed true crime docuseries I Am A Killer.
At the start of the episode Hatcher says: “People say, ‘You needed to come to prison to become the person that you are’.
“Right, ’cause you are gonna be a person that’s gonna help shift the culture, you gonna help change the world one day.
“I wanna be a beacon that redemption is possible, right? Demonstrating reconciliation is possible.
“You don’t have to come to prison and just let yourself just waste away. You can grow. Look at me. I am a person who has achieved it.”
Season five of I Am A Killer dropped on Netflix on October 16, 2024.
