The sentence my son’s killer got was an injustice

My son Christian Allen and I almost died during childbirth. From the start, he was always stubborn and tenacious. He also was the one who would be there the second he was needed.

He was an amazing football player at East Mecklenburg High School and had many accomplishments. He had a niece who he absolutely adored.

Chris didn’t get to graduate high school or go to college. I will never see his children, his education or his accomplishments. All of that was robbed from us. Gone. In one night.

Carlos Olguin, the man who shot my son to death in 2017 at a high school party, was sentenced Monday to seven to nine years in prison. He had seven previous gun charges. Carlos, now 27, was originally charged with first-degree murder. He was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

The night we got the call, we were sleeping. When we got to the hospital his father and I were told that Chris had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and did not survive. When we asked to see him we were told by police that we could not, that his body was a “crime scene.”

Can you imagine being told that your 18-year-old son went from breathing, laughing and living to a crime scene within an hour?

Carlos Olguin, now 27, had many gun charges that did not go to trial for many different reasons. This started in 2011.

The justice system did not only fail Chris, but it continues to fail everyone in a similar situation. If Carlos had been punished with the first charges or the second or even the third, things may have turned out differently.

His actions kept escalating until he did the ultimate — and he did that to my son. This was an intentional act; you don’t shoot someone four times accidentally. You don’t do that and then claim that you were defending your friends.

In court, the prosecutor told the judge that trouble at the party started when Chris found that a bag he had brought, containing marijuana, had disappeared.

I do not deny that my son was fighting people. He was standing up for his rights, his belongings, and for what he believed in.

Still, so many questions arise. Why was Carlos at a high school teenage bonfire? Why did he bring a gun? Why was he allowed to buy a gun after all of the alleged charges that came before this?

The sentence he was given for killing my son was a joke and an injustice to victims everywhere. I don’t think that a plea of voluntary manslaughter with a sentence of seven to nine years should even have been considered.

My son had a life, he had a very full life. Carlos could be out of prison in possibly three years, and with his past history I believe he may shoot someone again.

The District Attorney’s office made it sound like my family had a choice, maybe even a say so in what would happen. But we didn’t — and neither do other victims. The DA’s office knew it was going to make this plea agreement even before my family walked in that day. That is the system.

Representatives from the DA’s office sat in a meeting and, in my mind, told my husband and I that the justice system is there to help the criminals. What I heard them saying is, “We would rather see 100 guilty people go free than see one innocent person incarcerated.”

The justice system is flawed and it fails daily. But I do know if it were any of their children, the fight would be strong, long and relentless. But not for my child.

This is an injustice and I hope changes are made. Pretty sure it’s not going to happen.