Erie man who drove shooter and supplied the gun gets 20 to 40 years in teen's killing
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAA 19-year-old who did not fire the gun that killed 17-year-old Armoni Cantu was sentenced Monday to 20 to 40 years in state prison for supplying that gun and driving the shooter to the scene of the December 2024 drive-by shooting near Erie High School.
Judge John J. Trucilla accepted the prosecution and defense recommendation and sentenced Cire Brown-House to the statutory maximum for third-degree murder, an unintentional killing committed with malice, after his guilty plea in August. The plea deal let Brown-House avoid a mandatory life sentence without parole that he would have faced if convicted at trial of first-degree murder as an accomplice.
“If Cire Brown-House is not there, we are not here today,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Lightner said at the hearing. “He provided the means and the wheels.” Investigators said the shooter, Jamarion J.L. Boone, an Erie High student, was searching for two students he thought had bullied his girlfriend earlier in the day; Boone fired into a crowd of eight to 10 people at West 31st and Liberty streets around 3:55 p.m. on December 17, 2024, about 15 minutes after the final bell. Cantu, who attended classes online and was not an Erie High student, was not Boone's intended target, prosecutors said; another 17-year-old shot in the face survived.
Boone, who was 17 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced in April to 53 years to life. Brown-House apologized to Cantu's family in court on Monday, saying, “I pray that you find peace and closure. I am sorry.” A fourth defendant, Martavion C.D. Thompson, 20, had a plea hearing scheduled for Tuesday; a third defendant, Jahmeir O. Bibbs, 19, was sentenced to secure juvenile detention in July after cooperating.
Sources: Erie Times-News via GoErie (Oct 27, 2026).
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