Antioch man gets 6 years in double homicide of sister, her boyfriend

OAKLAND An Antioch man has been sentenced to six years in state prison for killing his sister and her boyfriend in what his lawyer called an attempt to defend her gone horribly wrong Horatio Lawrence II pleaded no contest to a single count of manslaughter in connection with the Sept shooting that killed -year-old Eric Brown and -year-old Arnika Barriga A prominent theory of the circumstance is that Lawrence accidentally killed Barriga while attempting to defend her from Brown during a domestic violence circumstance court records show After killing both casualties Lawrence fled the area and disposed of the gun he used police declared at the time Lawrence was initially charged with two counts of murder Those charges were dropped as part of the plea deal which was agreed to in October and finalized last November He was transferred to state prison last December and is presently housed at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco court records show Lawrence was given a little more than three years credit for the time he served in jail between his arrest in late and when the scenario was resolved court records show His lawyer Ernie Castillo disclosed in a announcement that the family Lawrence included has been been through a lot in life since it happened But everyone understands that Horatio came to his sister s defense to protect her from an ongoing domestic situation Castillo explained We are all just glad he s coming home soon