San Jose woman sentenced to four years for fatal shooting

A woman was sentenced Tuesday to four years in state prison for fatally shooting another woman while they were riding together in a car in East Oakland last year.

Diamond Cooper, 20, originally was charged with murder in connection with the death of 62-year-old Schevette Butts but on Nov. 8 she pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Oakland police Officer Jose Barocio wrote in a probable cause statement that Butts was in the front passenger seat and Cooper was in the rear seat of a white Honda Accord that was being driven by Tonea Thomas, who’s now 20, on Sept. 12, 2017.

Barocio said Thomas passed a loaded semi-automatic pistol to Cooper, who he said “began manipulating the firearm and shot a round toward Butts’ front seat” and struck Butts in her buttocks area.

Barocio wrote that Thomas and Cooper drove Butts to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where they gave officers false information and then left on foot.

Officers who searched the Honda Accord found the semi-automatic pistol, a shell casing and slug, Barocio said.

Butts died at Highland Hospital on Oct. 2, 2017.

Multiple witnesses identified Cooper as the woman who was in the rear seat of the Honda Accord and shot Butts, Barocio wrote.

On Oct. 12, 2017, Cooper was arrested at her home in San Jose and Thomas was arrested in Oakland, according to police.

Thomas pleaded guilty on Aug. 10 to being an accessory after the fact and carrying a loaded firearm in a city. When Thomas, who is free on $60,000 bail, is sentenced she could be placed on probation or face up to three years in prison.