A Maricopa County Superior Court judge sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for the murder that caused a car to crash into a Phoenix home.

Carnell Cunningham, 39, at first arrested for first-degree murder, pleaded to the lesser charge of manslaughter for the murder of Mikayla Ballesteros, 23.

During sentencing on March 23, Cunningham’s lawyer, Pamela Campbell, told the court that Cunningham’s history with schizophrenia and paranoia played a large part in the murder.

The murder

On April 10, 2021, police arrived at a home near Bethany Home Road and 40th Avenue and found Cunningham being held down by a couple of people outside of the house the car had crashed into.

A police report claimed witnesses saw Cunningham and Ballesteros in a Chevy Impala at a nearby gas station before the crash. A witness said that Ballesteros was screaming for help as they drove off. The witness followed them and said that the Impala stopped and sped up erratically.

After being arrested, Cunningham told police that he had been upset because he falsely thought Ballesteros had his mother killed.

According to court records, police claimed he told them "he was angry and 'wanted to kill somebody' after he got the news that someone had killed his mother."

Cunningham shot Ballesteros once in the side and once behind the ear while she was driving, according to the police report.

The car then jumped the median into oncoming traffic and crashed into a parked car, causing it to slam into the side of a house.

One of the home's residents came out, and confronted Cunningham, who had spilled out of the Impala. He pulled a gun on her and shouted, "if you come close, I will (expletive) kill you," the police report claimed.

The resident's boyfriend smacked Cunningham's arm, making him drop the gun, and the two wrestled until police arrived.

At sentencing, Campbell said the police body cam footage showed Cunningham was “obviously high as hell.”

From murder to manslaughter

Police claimed that before he had been charged, Cunningham asked them if he could be charged with second-degree murder because he hadn’t planned on shooting Ballesteros.

While police arrested Cunningham on suspicion of first-degree murder, he was ultimately charged with second-degree murder.

Cunningham pleaded guilty on Jan. 23 to the lesser charges of manslaughter and aggravated assault.

In Arizona, most murders fall within three categories: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter.

• First-degree murder — In this case, would mean that the murder had been planned. It would have come with a sentence ranging from life in prison to the death penalty.

• Second-degree murder — In this case, would have meant that it was not planned but was done intentionally and without any concern for the safety of other people. This charge would have come with a possible 10 to 25 years in prison.

• Manslaughter — In this case, would mean the murder happened in the heat of the moment, not intentionally and not planned. In this case, Cunningham faced between seven to 21 years in prison.

Prosecutors felt that Ballesteros' murder was reckless and that manslaughter applied.

His paranoia played a part that day. According to Campbell, he had been talking with his mother on the phone while accusing Ballesteros of sending men to kill her.

Campbell explained that the prosecutor agreed that Cunningham was vulnerable after the murder, and that the deputy county attorney "noted that even though Cornell was the perpetrator in shooting, it still was probably very traumatic for him,” Campbell said.

Sentencing

During sentencing, Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Jenna Derango asked the court to sentence Cunningham to 21 years.

“His killing was done in anger. That poor girl tried to get help that day in the gas station parking lot,” she said.

Ballesteros' stepmother, Bernadette Finney, also spoke. She told the court that Cunningham and Ballesteros had problems for years and that Cunningham took advantage of her being so much younger than he was and took advantage of her sympathy.

“I asked Makayla, why does he have a hold on you, what does he have that you seem to like? Do you know, she looked me in the eyes and said he has no one. Not even his family,” she said.

Maricopa Superior Court Judge William Wingard sentenced Cunningham to 15 years in prison from the manslaughter charge and seven months of probation for the aggravated assault charge.

This reporting follows crimes The Republic began to cover in 2021 and is part of our commitment to telling the story from start to finish.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: From murder to manslaughter: Phoenix man gets 15 years in prison