36-year-old Althea Housley was sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in prison today for four armed robberies in Oakland that left one man dead. In a plea deal in which she testified against 26-year-old boyfriend George Huggins, Housley received a reduced sentence. She could have gotten 30 years for the crimes, but plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the case of Jinghong Kang, a 45-year-old man who was shot on Webster Street in 2010 during a robbery. Kang had been applying for a job at Google at the time, which the Tribune has played up in their headlines.
Another man, a dental technician named Hai Huang, was also shot during a robbery on June 18, 2010, shortly after he had finished cleaning Kang's teeth. The two men knew each other, and were both targeted on the same evening. Housley and Huggins also robbed two other people who were sitting in their cars three days later.
Housley said she regretted her bad decisions, and following along in the crimes of her "soul mate," which she committed after abusing alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana. During her sentencing today, she apologized to victims' families, saying that she and Huggins had committed the robberies because "they needed money after having spent their monthly welfare and food stamp allowance."
Huggins, who was convicted in March and will be sentenced June 3, is likely to get life in prison.
