Avita Campbell, Raymond Jackson sentenced on manslaughter and gun possession in Lasaaun Lawrence's death, Queens DA Katz says

A mother and son from Valley Stream were sentenced Thursday to decadeslong prison sentences in the shooting death of a 27-year-old Far Rockaway man in 2020, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a news release. 

Raymond Jackson, 25, and his mother, Avita Campbell, 40, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the shooting death of Lasaaun Lawrence. Campbell also pleaded guilty to second-degree unlawful possession of personal identification.

“A dispute over a small sum of money ended with a young man being senselessly executed," Katz said. "His killers are going to prison for a long time for their coldblooded viciousness.” 

Queens Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant sentenced Jackson to 24 years in prison and imposed a 22-year-prison sentence on Campbell. They were also each sentenced to five years of post-release supervision, the statement from Katz's office said.

Prosecutors said the victim, Lawrence, went to the defendants’ Valley Stream home on Sept. 23 seeking money he believed Jackson owed him for a car repair. Jackson and the victim had a physical altercation, prosecutors said.

Jackson and Campbell were seen later at about 5:40 p.m. that day exiting a white BMW on Beach 31st Street near Seagirt Avenue in Far Rockway, Katz said. Campbell was armed with a metal pipe, prosecutors said, while Jackson was carrying a handgun. Lawrence was in a double-parked car at the location.

Jackson raised his arm as he approached Lawrence and fired about a dozen times, with multiple shots hitting Lawrence, prosecutors said. After Jackson stopped shooting, his mother slammed the windshield of Lawrence’s car with the pipe she was carrying, causing glass to shatter. Mother and son got back in to the BMW and fled, prosecutors said. 

Lawrence died of gunshot wounds. 

Attorney Ed Muccini, who represented Jackson, said the evidence against his client was overwhelming and included video from a dashboard camera. 

“We negotiated a settlement that stopped him from getting life in prison,” Muccini said. 

Kevin O’Donnell, Campbell’s attorney, did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Campbell, Jackson and one other person were stopped in October 2020 by police while riding in the same white BMW, prosecutors said. 

Police executed a court-authorized search warrant and found a loaded silver-and-black handgun and two magazines inside a book bag, according to Katz’s office.

Ballistics tests performed on the recovered gun by the New York City Police Department’s Firearms Section revealed it was a match for the gun used to kill Lawrence, Katz said.

Jackson, who was identified as the shooter in subsequently recovered video surveillance, was arrested in Florida in December 2020 and extradited to New York.