CLEVELAND — A 19-year-old woman has been indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on charges connected to the fatal shooting of Antwoina Carter last month on Cleveland's east side.
According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, Trinity Ford faces the following charges:
- 2 counts of murder
- 2 counts of felonious assault
- 1 count of discharge of firearm on/near prohibited premises
All of the charges firearm contain specifications that could add one to five years to Ford's prison sentence if she is found guilty.
Ford was arraigned on Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. She pleaded not guilty and Judge Timothy McCormack continued the $1 million bond that had been set during a court appearance on Monday. Ford was initially arrested last week for obstruction of justice.
A pre-trial hearing for Ford has been set for April 10.
Carter, the 26-year-old mother of five, was fatally shot in the early morning hours of March 17. She had called police at around 3:50 a.m., claiming someone was threatening her at her house on Garfield. Police arrived at approximately 4:30 a.m. and spoke to Carter's mother, who said someone had shot at her daughter's car. Carter was not home when police arrived.
Moments later, police heard gunshots ringing out from down the street near the intersection of East 105 and Garfield.
Surveillance video released by the Cleveland Division of Police showed the moments of Carter's car being shot at by a suspect on East 105th Street before she turned down Garfield Avenue toward Cleveland police officers, who fired at her car after hearing the shots from down the street.
Carter was found outside her crashed vehicle and taken to University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The Cuyahoga County Use of Deadly Force Team is investigating the shooting. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office previously stated that its "preliminary testing does not indicate that police activity was directly responsible" for Carter's death.