FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A woman who was convicted of killing her Miami police officer boyfriend two years ago was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Tiniko Thompson was found guilty in August of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Officer Carl Patrick.
She showed little to no emotion Friday when Judge Geoffrey Cohen told her that she would spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Patrick's family and friends hugged after the sentence was read.
"My lord has given justice today, because my son was good to that lady, and he loved her so much that he could not see the ugly in her," Patrick's mother, Lucille Patrick, said.
Carl Patrick was found dead in his uniform inside his Pembroke Pines home in May 2014.
Thompson claimed that Patrick abused her, prompting her to shoot him in self-defense. But prosecutors argued during her trial that she could have saved Patrick's life by calling 911.
Police said Thompson, a Miami police public service aide who was Patrick's live-in girlfriend, shot Patrick and took his cellphone so that he couldn't call for help. They said she also faked a pregnancy and ran up Patrick's credit cards after the shooting.
"For him to die the way he did, she needed to pay the ultimate price," Patrick's friend and former supervisor, Craig McQueen, said.
Before the sentence was handed down, Thompson's mother, brother and daughter pleaded for mercy, saying that she was compassionate and was the victim of domestic violence, even though there was no evidence of abuse revealed during the trial.
"I am sorry in my own self defense that Carl lost his life, Ms. Patrick," Thompson said as she addressed her former boyfriend's mother. "I truly loved Carl, but I didn't mean for Carl to die. I'm sorry. I'm sorry you lost him."
Patrick's mother said Thompson's claims against her son are false.
"He was not going to kill her. She didn't have no self-defense," Lucille Patrick said. "I saw my son face down on the floor."