Jean Steven Voltare, 22, was on a rampage. He'd already committed two armed robberies in the days before his girlfriend, Layonna Shammae Shamblin, 16, called him on October 25, 2005, to tell him about a man with a wallet full of money. She thought they should rob him.
   Voltare and Jamie Lloyd Harris, 22, made plans for Shamblin to have the victim give her a ride to an apartment complex so they could rob him. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police later found Julius Darrell Jones, 50, shot to death in his pickup truck in the parking lot of Sun Valley Apartments off Arrowood Road. The three were brazen enough to rob and murder Jones in broad daylight.
                                           
                             Voltare                 Harris               Shamblin 

   The Mecklenburg County District Attorney's office initially charged all three with first degree murder. A letter in each of their files states that "the evidence in this case will show the existence of at least one potential aggravating circumstance" and that the state "intends to seek the death penalty."
   Then in January, Assistant District Attorney David Wallace cut one of the stunning plea deals that the underfunded Mecklenburg DA's office is famous for. The plea deal Voltare signed knocked the first degree murder charge down to second degree murder and combined the charges from the other two armed robberies Voltare committed the week of Jones' murder. Voltare's jail sentence for all those crimes? A minimum of 10 years and eight months to a maximum of just over 13 years. Wallace cut the same plea deal with Harris, who got the same sentence.
   Superior Court Judge Forrest D. Bridges (up for re-election in 2010) approved and signed the plea deal in Voltare's case. Superior Court Judge J. Gentry Caudill (up for re-election in 2010) approved and signed the plea deal for Harris. In a recent court filing, Shamblin's attorney claimed Shamblin is mentally retarded. She has not yet been tried for the crime.