Tehje Vaughan Avoids Prison Time, Ordered to Pay $15,000 for Manslaughter by Negligence

Tehje Vaughan will not be serving time in prison for the death of 30-year-old, Charles Alexander Cantun.  Instead, she has been ordered by Justice Derrick Sylvester to pay the victim’s wife fifteen thousand dollars.  On April 28, 2023, Tehje Vaughan held a firearm for the first time, and within seconds, one of her close friends and colleague was dead.  The 25-year-old young woman was sitting inside a parked vehicle when she pulled the trigger, fatally injuring Cantun.  Today, Vaughan appeared in court and entered a plea deal; an option that recently became available under Section 116 of the Criminal Code, allowing an accused to enter a guilty plea at any stage of the criminal proceedings, prior to a judgement.  Vaughan was charged with one count of manslaughter by negligence. In court, Vaughan’s attorney, Leeroy Banner, submitted that she should receive a non-custodial sentence, and cited precedence in the case of Jasmine Hartin who had accidentally killed Police Superintendent Henry Jemmoth. Justice Sylvester agreed upon consideration of several factors including the child that the victim left behind.  Mitigating factors considered included the early guilty plea and remorse that Vaughan displayed.  In court, Vaughan apologized to the Cantun family who were in court today for the outcome.  Justice Sylvester ordered that five thousand dollars be paid by tomorrow to Cantun’s wife; the balance is to be paid by the end of September.   Outside the courtroom, the victim’s sister, Melli Cantun, said, quote, “God has a plan sometimes we don’t understand it, but he does.  Nothing can ever replace our brother. No amount of money can ever bring him back and how much we miss him,” End of quote.