LANSING — A parolee who pleaded guilty after a 4-year-old girl found a loaded handgun and fatally shot herself has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison.
Maliki Pendergrass left a stolen, loaded, 9mm handgun beneath a couch in a Lansing residence the night before his girlfriend’s daughter apparently found it and used it to shoot herself, Lansing police said in a document filed in support of criminal charges.
Pendergrass, 22, pleaded guilty on June 11 to violating the state’s safe gun storage law, illegally possessing a firearm and felony firearm possession as a third-time habitual offender, court records indicate.
Ingham County Circuit Judge James Jamo on Wednesday, July 29, sentenced Pendergrass to 14 to 32 years in prison, including 12-30 years for a safe gun storage violation causing death and the mandatory two years in prison for felony firearm.
He was not eligible for credit for the time he spent in jail because he was a parolee, the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
State law now requires that unattended weapons be kept unloaded and locked with a device or stored in a locked container if a minor is likely to be present on the premises.
Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane said previously that the girl’s death was “entirely preventable.”
“These laws exist to protect the public and to prevent children from gaining access to firearms in their homes and communities. This tragic case serves as another reminder of the consequences of unsafe firearm storage and unlawful firearm possession.”
The tragedy happened on Jan. 21 in an apartment in the 600 block of Sadie Court in north Lansing. Pendergrass told police he had pushed the gun under the couch the night before the girl shot herself, police said.
Pendergrass faced seven felony counts in connection with the girl’s death, including involuntary manslaughter. Four of those counts were dismissed as part of the plea deal. There was no sentencing agreement.
He was paroled July 29, 2025, after serving minimum sentences of five years for armed robbery and carrying a concealed weapon, state corrections records indicate.
The safe-storage violation − the most serious charge Pendergrass pleaded guilty to − carried a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. But his sentence was eligible to be enhanced because he is an habitual offender. The felony firearm conviction carries a mandatory sentence of 2 years in prison that must be served before the other sentences begin running.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Man sentenced after Lansing girl, 4, fatally shot herself with his gun
Reporting by Al Wilson and Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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By Al Wilson and Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal | USA TODAY Network
