Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for
Murdering Pregnant Girlfriend, Fetus

May 22, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Joe Scott, Director of Communications
Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Jane Robison, News Secretary
Shiara Dávila-Morales, Assistant PIO
(213) 974-3525

COMPTON – A Los Angeles man convicted of murdering his girlfriend and her unborn child on the way home from church in 2007 was sent to prison today for the remainder of his life.

Compton Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter imposed the life-without-parole sentence upon 35-year-old Stephen Mark Picart. Hunter presided over Picart’s trial, which ended last month when the defendant was convicted of one count each of first- and second-degree murder along with the special circumstance of multiple murders. The jury also determined that Picart personally fired a handgun causing the deaths of the victims.

Picart was convicted of the first-degree murder of his girlfriend, Sharon Carter, 31, on Sept, 23, 2007. He also was convicted of the second-degree murder of her fetus.

Authorities said Picart, Carter and her two sons – then 14 and 4 – were driving home from attending Tabernacle of Grace church in Watts, where the victim’s father was pastor.

Carter was driving the SUV with Picart and the boys as passengers, authorities said. She was shot in the back of the head during an argument with Picart. The sons were not wounded.

Picart was arrested shortly after the shooting and has remained in custody on $2 million bail. Although charged as a capital crime, the District Attorney’s office opted not to seek the death penalty, leaving life without the possibility of parole as the only other sentence if the defendant were convicted of the murders and the special circumstance found true.

The life-without-parole sentence is to run consecutively with a 65-year-to-life term: 15-to-life for the second-degree murder of the fetus and 50-to-life for gun use.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Martha Carrillo of the Compton Branch office.

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