Teen former stripper gets probation for role in robbery, murder

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Updated: February 21, 2012 8:40AM

A 19-year-old former stripper who admitted assisting her then-boyfriend in the robbery and murder of the strip club owner was placed on probation and given credit for the six months she spent in jail.

Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray imposed a three-year suspended sentence for Sha’Mere Janea Patterson, who was 17 when she aided her then-boyfriend, Brandan Rhonte McDonald, in the Dec. 4, 2009, murder of Terrence Crossley, 57, who owned Body Heat Gentlemen’s Club in Gary and two others.

Patterson lied to police and said she didn’t know who killed Crossley at the club on 35th Avenue near Broadway. In court Thursday, Patterson said she had nothing to do with Crossley’s death and was trying to get her life on track after giving birth last fall.

Crossley’s sister, Linda Joseph, said her brother graduated from West Side High School, served in the military and was hardworking. Joseph said burying her middle brother took a terrible toll on the once close-knit family of 11 siblings

Defense attorney Scott King argued for leniency in light of Patterson’s horrific upbringing, from being born to a cocaine-addicted mother who abandoned her to ending up on the street at age 17, where she found work as a stripper at the club. King said Crossley, in exchange for dancing “and acts in the VIP section,” provided her with housing and “fed her Ecstasy.”

Deputy prosecutor Angela Mattozzi noted Patterson’s cooperation in the case against McDonald but argued for a four-year sentence. Mattozzi said Patterson chose to quit school and work in the club. Patterson has a previous juvenile adjudication for disorderly conduct.

Patterson had faced a maximum eight-year sentence on the reduced charge, and a murder charge punishable by a maximum 65-year sentence was dismissed. Murray found her young age, her lack of criminal record and her remorse in court warranted a mitigated sentence of three years. Murray ordered one year executed and two years suspended and served on probation. Patterson spent 185 days in the Lake County Jail. With credit for good behavior, that amounts to more than one year.

McDonald, 20, is serving a 32-year prison sentence, followed by three years on probation, for voluntary manslaughter.