In shooting near Erie marina, gun permit highlighted at sentencing of woman who had pistol

A permit to carry a concealed firearm was a much-discussed piece of evidence at the sentencing of a 29-year-old woman who shot an unarmed woman in the back near Erie's Lampe Marina in June 2023.

The defendant, Essence Magee, was sentenced on Tuesday to six to 23 months in the Erie County Prison and two years of probation. Magee said she was defending herself from bullies.

Magee left the gun permit at the shooting scene . The paperwork helped Erie police confirm Magee's identity after she turned herself in shortly after the incident.

The defense cited the permit to show that Magee legally possessed the firearm, a Taurus 9 mm handgun, when she fired it at around 2 a.m. on June 3, 2023, during a fight in the parking lot at the end of the Port Access Road. The road leads to the Lampe Campground, near Lampe Marina, both Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority properties near the channel that connects Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie.

The Erie County District Attorney's Office considered Magee's legal possession of the gun when it agreed to drop felony aggravated assault charges and let Magee plead guilty in May to the second-degree misdemeanor of recklessly endangering another person, according to information presented at her sentencing in Erie County Common Pleas Court.

The prosecution rejected Magee's claim that she used the gun in self-defense. The victim was shot as she was trying to break up a fight between Magee and another woman.

The victim was "a complete innocent bystander trying to help Ms. Magee," Chief Deputy District Attorney Steven Liboski told Judge David Ridge. He said the shooting showed Magee's "absolute callous disregard" for the safety of others.

Ridge said he also considered that Magee was permitted to carry the handgun and that she did not intend to shoot the woman, who was hit in the lower back. The victim was hospitalized for three weeks.

But Ridge said Magee acted recklessly when she fired the gun, and that she did not act in self-defense. The evidence showed that the woman with whom Magee was fighting was also unarmed and was trying to punch Magee when the other woman stepped between them and was shot.

"You don't get to use deadly force unless you are confronted with deadly force," Ridge told Magee.

Defendant also sentenced for driving brother away in other shooting

The sentence of six to 23 months was in the standard range of the state sentencing guidelines, which accounted for Magee's lack of a prior record and other factors. Ridge gave her two years of probation for her guilty plea to the misdemeanor of obstruction of justice in another case.

In that case, Magee pleaded guilty to driving her brother, Tyler D. Magee, to Buffalo following a shooting near what was then the Super Chicken Lounge at 1015 State St. in Erie in the early morning of April 23, 2023.

A woman was shot in the leg. The city ordered the Super Chicken Lounge closed after another shooting seven days later.

Tyler Magee, 31, pleaded guilty in the Super Chicken shooting and another shooting and was sentenced to five to 10 years in state prison on June 11, according to the District Attorney's Office.

The office said he is to serve that sentence after he finishes a five-year federal sentence he received in May for conspiring to deal fentanyl and methamphetamine as an associate of the Erie street gang 4-Nation , the target of a 58-defendant indictment returned in May 2023 in U.S. District Court in Erie .

Defendant says 'I was scared for my life' in shooting near marina

At Essence Magee's sentencing, the focus was on the shooting near Lampe Marina.

Though Magee said little to Ridge, she apologized in a letter she submitted to him. She said in the letter that "this whole situation" resulted from other young women "trying to be bullies & mess with me because I am a very petite small girl" — 5 feet, 3 inches tall and 113 pounds. Magee said in the letter that someone was pulling her long hair braids when she fired the gun on June 3, 2023.

"I was put in a situation where I legally had to defend myself, & I did that," according to the letter. "I didn't intentionally mean to hurt anybody. I was in a moment where I was scared for my life."

Ridge told Magee that he appreciated her letter and her acceptance of responsibility by pleading guilty.

What he also had to remember, Ridge said, is what happened when Magee pulled out the handgun.

"Someone got shot," he said.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella .

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: In shooting near Erie marina, gun permit highlighted at sentencing of woman who had pistol