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Mother of slain Charlotte woman begs judge not to accept plea deal

By Mark Barber
By Mark Barber

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte man has admitted to murdering a woman with whom he was in a relationship so he could get less prison time.

Jalen Anderson was facing the possibility of a life sentence, but now will spend at least 20 years in prison.

[RELATED ARTICLE: Second arrest made in double shooting that left woman dead]

A judge agreed to the deal and dropped two charges against him because he was willing to plead guilty to second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

The woman he was dating, Mary Tarr, 20, was shot to death last August on Pineville-Matthews Road in south Charlotte.

Her mother, Wendy Francosky, begged the judge not to accept the plea deal for her daughter's killer.

"The turmoil that me and my family are going through is unbearable," Francosky said, crying. "He hunted her like a dog and killed her."

Tarr was in a relationship with Anderson while he was seeing another woman, Tiffany Wallace. Her family said Wallace was pregnant with his child.

When the women realized that Anderson was involved with both of them, they vandalized his car, authorities said.

Police said he and his brother retaliated by running them down and firing more than a dozen shots into their car.

"They chased her like an animal and killed my daughter, and Tiffany would've been killed too, but my daughter told her to take her seat belt off and get on the floorboard of the car," Francosky said.

Prosecutors said Wallace was seriously hurt by a bullet that hit her back.

She and her baby survived, but her family said she is still going through physical and emotional therapy from the trauma.

During Friday's plea hearing, Anderson's attorney focused her defense on his troubled upbringing, saying that he was trying to better himself.

"I raised three kids by myself on very little money, and none of my kids have any felonies, have never done any jail time, so there's no excuse at all," Francosky said.

Tarr's family is devastated but hopes for a different outcome when Anderson's brother, Jerron, goes on trial for murder in February 2018.

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