Appeals Court Overturns Convictions of Sister of Lakewood Police Officers' Killer

A state appeals court has overturned the convictions of LaTanya Clemmons, sister of Maurice Clemmons, who fatally shot four Lakewood Police officers in November 2009.

According to The News Tribune, Clemmons was scheduled to get out of prison next month after serving two years of the sentence she received for helping her brother's getaway driver after massacre at the Forza Coffee Shop in Parkland.

Clemmons appealed her convictions on two counts of first-degree rendering criminal assistance with aggravating factors.

According to the story:

Among other things, she contended prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she helped her brother's friend, Dorcus Allen, evade police after he gave Maurice Clemmons a ride to and from a Parkland coffee shop where Clemmons gunned down Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Tina Griswold, Greg Richards and Ronald Owens.

Prosecutors were required to prove LaTana Clemmons knew Allen had committed aggravated first-degree murder, or knew that police were seeking him for aggravated first-degree murder.

In a 2-1 decision released Friday, the Division 2 Court of Appeals ruled that prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence to support either allegation at her 2010 trial.

A jury in 2011 convicted Allen of being an accomplice to four counts of first-degree murder for helping Maurice Clemmons, and Allen is serving a 420-year prison sentence. Four other people also were convicted and sentenced to prison for helping Maurice Clemmons after the killings.

Click here to read The News Tribune's full story.