NC man gets 7 to 9 years in teen’s shooting death. ‘This is an injustice,’ mother says.

Carlos Olguin, the man charged in the shooting death of an East Mecklenburg High School football player, was sentenced Monday to seven to nine years in prison — a plea deal that the victim’s family members say is far too lenient.

Police say Olguin, an east Charlotte resident with seven previous gun charges, repeatedly shot 18-year-old Christian Allen during a Feb. 19, 2017 party about four miles from the school.

Olguin, now 27, was originally charged with first-degree murder — a charge that could have landed him in prison for life. On Monday, Mecklenburg County prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to the much-reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter. Superior Court Judge Gregory Hayes sentenced him to 80 to 108 months in prison.

Allen’s mother, Beth, said she was so upset to learn of the planned plea deal that she stormed out of a meeting with prosecutors last month.

Olguin’s many previous gun charges suggest that once he is free, he may shoot someone again, she said.

“I feel that this is an injustice,” she said. ”... Someone else is going to be in the position we’re in.”

Emotions ran high inside the courtroom. Allen’s father, David, loudly told Olguin: “Hey Carlos, there’s a special place in hell for people like you. Why do you have to put us through this?”

Bailiffs ushered David Allen out of the courtroom. “I understand this is a heavy situation,” one bailiff warned the family. “But if it happens again, you won’t be going out the back door. You may be going out the side door (to the jail.)“

Frustration with plea deal

About a dozen of Allen’s friends and family members attended the plea hearing Monday morning, with several of them telling Judge Hayes that they believed Olguin’s sentence was too light.

Terra Varnes, the lead prosecutor in the case, told the judge that the trouble at the 2017 house party began when Allen discovered that a bag he had brought, containing marijuana, had disappeared. Allen got into an argument over the missing bag and wound up punching two of Olguin’s friends, knocking one of them unconscious, Varnes said.

Olguin then fired six shots, and four of them hit Allen, Varnes said.

Had the case gone to trial, Varnes told the judge, the result would likely have been the same.

“We believe it was very likely a voluntary manslaughter verdict would happen,” she said.

A jury probably would have concluded that Olguin was trying to defend his friends, Varnes said. Olguin said he fired his gun because he was scared, Varnes said, noting that Allen was larger and stronger than he was.

Had a jury convicted Olguin of voluntary manslaughter, the longest sentence he could have received is the one he got Monday, Varnes said.

Olguin had rejected an earlier plea offer, which would have kept him in prison for 16 to 20 years.

Beth Allen said she wishes that prosecutors had insisted on taking the case to trial. But prosecutors told her that they were concerned because some of the witnesses at the party were intoxicated — a fact that they felt would hurt their case, she said.

A pattern of dismissing gun charges

Olguin’s record was one example in a 2019 Charlotte Observer investigation, entitled ”Dismissed,” that revealed how prosecutors in Mecklenburg routinely dismissed weapons charges — and how defendants getting those breaks often moved on to worse offenses, including murder.

One reason for all the dismissals, the investigation found, is that the courts are overwhelmed and underfunded. A shortage of prosecutors, judges and other court personnel limits how many cases the DA’s office can bring to trial, former prosecutors said.

Allen’s parents have questioned whether their son would be alive today if prosecutors had been tougher with Olguin on previous cases. Prosecutors dismissed most gun charges filed against Olguin before the night Allen died.

Olguin’s first gun crime came in 2011, when he was charged with carrying a concealed gun and possession of a handgun by a minor. The first charge was dismissed. He pleaded guilty to the second and spent 45 days in jail.

Later that year, after a shootout, Olguin was charged with one of the most serious gun offenses — assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury. Mecklenburg prosecutors dismissed that charge, along with two related weapons charges. Witnesses in the case gave inconsistent statements, a prosecutor wrote in a court document explaining the dismissals.

In 2012, Olguin was charged with two more gun crimes — including a felony assault charge that came after a relative claimed Olguin had shot at him. Prosecutors dismissed those charges, too. The available court records don’t show why.

A federal check showed that Olguin bought the handgun used to shoot Christian Allen nine days before the killing, a prosecutor said at a 2018 bond hearing. Had Olguin been convicted on any of the prior felony gun charges, he would not have been able to buy the gun legally.

Olguin has been held without bond in the Mecklenburg County jail since his arrest in 2017. He’ll get credit for time served.

His had been one of 370 pending homicide cases in Mecklenburg County. Contributing to the backlog: several years in which the county’s homicide totals were high, coupled with many months during the pandemic when jury trials were suspended. Deputy District Attorney Bruce Lillie said 113 of those homicide defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Christian Allen was a starter on the East Mecklenburg football team and won all-conference awards. He planned to become a police officer, his family members said.

Allen’s grandmother, Vicki Allen, told the judge Monday that she believed it was a “travesty of justice” that prosecutors didn’t fight for a murder conviction in the case.

“Chris’ life mattered and for the judicial system to brush us aside in that manner is unconscionable,” she said.