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An aspiring singer narrowly avoided prison after shooting an unarmed homeless man twice during an argument over where her Porsche was parked in Nashville. Katie Quackenbush, 32, who is also known on stage as Katie Layne, was given 11 months and 29 days of probation Thursday by a judge who also ruled she could serve her time in Texas, The Tennessean reported. The 32-year-old mother of four gave a tearful statement at her sentencing in which she both apologized to Gerald Melton, the man who shot her in 2017, and explained how she was already dealing with the punishment meted out to her community. “Millions of people were making fun of me online,” he told the hearing. “I was condemned by the community before the trial,” he added, noting that he had difficulty securing jobs, applying to colleges and even receiving death threats from strangers. “For five years, I had to live with this… social punishment. Even after all this is over, Google will always be there. This will follow me for the rest of my life,” Ms. Quackenbush said at Thursday’s hearing, noting that her life was like “one foot in purgatory and one foot in real life.” “That was the worst experience of my life, but I’m grateful I had it because it changed me so dramatically to the core,” he added. For Mr Melton, that day left much more than an emotional scar as he had to undergo at least three surgeries to repair his injuries. On Aug. 26, 2017, Mr. Melton, who was homeless at the time, was trying to sleep on the sidewalk when he was “disturbed by exhaust fumes and loud music” coming from Ms. Quackenbush’s Porsche SUV, according to a news release from Nashville Metro Police. Katie Quackenbush, an aspiring singer who goes by the name Katie Layne, was given 11 months and 29 days of probation on November 3, 2022 (Metro Nashville Police Department) The pair became engaged in a heated argument, with Melton later testifying in court that Mrs Quackenbush asked him if he “wanted to die tonight”. The 54-year-old said that as he started to walk away from the woman, she jumped out of the Porsche and fired two shots before fleeing. Neither she nor her passenger reported the shooting to the police, instead choosing to drive to Taco Bell. Police responded to the shooting only when Melton called himself, The Tennessean reported. Ms. Quackenbush was initially arrested on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Those charges, however, were later dropped and replaced with the lesser charge of reckless endangerment, for which he was convicted in April after a two-day trial. Before her sentencing in November, Ms. Quackenbush had been free as she posted her $25,000 bond shortly after the April hearing. During Thursday’s 45-minute hearing, the 32-year-old expressed deep sorrow for the incident and her lawyer argued that she has shown initiative to rebuild herself in the years since the shooting, citing her college enrollment and aspirations to become a lawyer. a day and creating a stable home for her four young children. “That inspired me to do better,” she told the judge, The Tennessean reported. “It inspired me to help people who were in my shoes.” Ms. Quackenbush was found guilty by a jury of reckless endangerment in April, a Class A misdemeanor that can carry a maximum sentence of 11 months and 29 days in prison, News Channel 5 reported.
