Woman Who Murdered Child’s Father Sentenced to 125 Years in Prison

A Georgia woman who was found guilty of murdering a man on camera and in front of their daughter has been sentenced to 125 years in prison.
Woman Who Murdered Child’s Father Sentenced to 125 Years in Prison
Stock image of a judge's gavel. Park Ji-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images
Isabel van Brugen
Updated:

A Georgia woman who was found guilty of murdering a man on camera and in front of their daughter has been sentenced to 125 years in prison, according to reports.

According to WSBTV Channel 2, Ciera Hart, 29, was sentenced by Clayton County Judge Robert Mack on June 26.

The news comes after Hart was convicted on May 22 of malice murder and aggravated assault after fatally shooting the father of her child, Rahim Grant, on Dec. 29 2017.

Grant filmed his final moments on his phone as Harp shot him seven times in the space of 13 minutes in a Clayton County residence, before he succumbed to his injuries, authorities said.

In the footage, Grant is heard telling Harp that she will spend a long time in prison if she keeps shooting him.

Before her sentence was read, Harp said she was drunk and the shooting wouldn’t have happened if she had been in her “right state of mind.”

“I was not in my right state of mind. Had I not been drunk, it would have never happened,” Harp said, reported WSBTV Channel 2.

In the courtroom, the woman reportedly spoke directly to Grant’s mother and said, “Mrs. Grant Bryson, I am truly, truly sorry.”

Harp initially told police Grant had beaten her and she shot him in self-defense in the 2017 incident.

Officers later discovered the footage on the victim’s phone, in which Harp can be heard saying, “I don’t care if I go to jail for the rest of my life,” as she repeatedly shot her father of her child.

Harp was handed the 125-year sentence by the judge, although her attorney had asked for a five-year sentence.

Speaking in court last month, the woman’s mother, Adrienne Thurmond, repeated her crimes and urged the judge to hand her daughter a life sentence without parole, reported AJC.

“You murdered Rahim,” Thurmond said to her daughter during the trial. “Wherever you went chaos and trouble were sure to follow.”

She called her daughter manipulative, and claimed she “reveled in disrespect and foolishness,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“We, the family, ask the court to sterilize Ciera Harp to prevent any more children being born,” she added.

Speaking previously about Grant’s troubled relationship with Harp, his mother told WSBTV Channel 2 Harp was obsessed with him, and that she had warned her son to use his phone to record if he felt like he was in trouble.

“[I told him] get the video, record it, and lay the phone down,” Bryson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“It broke my heart. ... It’s something you don’t think when you just talked to your son,” she added.

Harp’s own mother claimed she murdered Grant because she was upset he had put an end to their relationship, reported WSBTV Channel 2.

“Your envious nature took control, and you murdered Rahim for moving on without you,” Thurmond said.

Speaking to the outlet, Grant’s mother, Geraldine Grant Bryson, said she is happy with the length of Harp’s sentence.

“It still feels like I’m in a dream and I can’t wake up,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Isabel van Brugen
Isabel van Brugen
Reporter
Isabel van Brugen is an award-winning journalist. She holds a master's in newspaper journalism from City, University of London.
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