Shooter who killed sister of Cartel Crew star avoids prison. Dead girl’s family outraged

Two years of emotions erupted Thursday when a judge gave no prison time to the confessed killer of a teenage friend at a house party during the height of the pandemic. After the courtroom cleared, the dead girl’s brother — seething with anger — had to be restrained by several police officers as he tried to storm the courtroom.

It wasn’t clear if he intended to confront the shooter or the judge.

The decision by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Lody Jean to allow Michael McGowan, 20, to avoid prison and instead enter a rehabilitation program for first time offenders outraged the family of Giselle “Gigi” Rengifo. They spent Thursday’s hearing seated in a jury box directly across from McGowan and his attorneys and occasionally interrupting the proceedings with angry outbursts.

After police restrained Rengifo’s brother Jonathan Jackson in the hallway outside courtroom 2-2 at the criminal courthouse, the dead girl’s mother angrily confronted several Miami-Dade Corrections officers as they tried to remain calm while blocking entrance to the courtroom that led to the judge’s chamber.

“He only got two days [in jail] after he killed my daughter and still he got time served,” Catherine Jackson screamed, the pain in her voice obvious.

“F--- Miami,” another family member yelled as the group finally made its way down the escalator to the front door exit on Northwest 13th Street.

Members of the Jackson family moved to Miami from out of state at the start of the pandemic at the request of Rengifo’s sister, VH1 starlet Salome Jackson, a singer who has also appeared on “Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta.” She’s perhaps better known as a cast member of VH1’s Miami-based Cartel Crew. She also boasts more than 306,000 followers on Instagram and over 17,900 on Twitter.

“If I knew this was going to happen, I never would have asked them to come,” Salome Jackson told the judge prior to McGowan’s sentencing. “I do feel like this is my fault. I learned my sister was dead when someone messaged me on Instagram... I didn’t know what to tell my family.”

McGowan’s punishment for the killing of Rengifo: a three- or four-month stay in Miami-Dade’s rehabilitative Boot Camp program, followed by two years of community control, which is a more restrictive form of probation. Then McGowan must serve another four years of actual probation. He was led away in handcuffs Thursday and will be jailed until Boot Camp begins likely some time in October or early November.

According to police, McGowan accidentally shot and killed “Gigi” Rengifo while hanging out with friends at an Airbnb rental studio in Miami’s Coral Way neighborhood on May 18, 2020. McGowan was 17 at the time, but charged as an adult with manslaughter with a deadly weapon. Four witnesses at the party told police the shooting was accidental. McGowan, who was charged with manslaughter, admitted he accidentally shot his friend.

The death was one of a series of accidental shootings of young people in Miami-Dade County in 2020, as the pandemic raged and young people stayed away from school and were stuck at home.

Since her sister’s death, Salome Jackson has used her large social media platform to grieve publicly, frequently posting photos of her sister.

The television starlet even used her VH1 show to center on “Justice for Gigi.” And she’s used her social media presence to direct the public to an online Change.org petition that blasts Miami police for “ignoring all the evidence.” Though it doesn’t specify what police missed.

When McGowan was granted bond in 2020 and outfitted with an ankle monitor, Jackson angrily suggested on Twitter that the move was racially motivated. Both Rengifo and McGowan are Black. Salome Jackson’s social media advocacy was effective enough that McGowan’s lawyers sought a gag order from the court. The request was denied.

On Friday morning Salome Jackson again took to Twitter, this time blasting Jean’s decision not to imprison her sister’s killer.

“This is what you call justice here in America? This judge gave this man who killed my sister... a few months of “BOOTCAMP” and “PROBATION.” 2 years of torture!!!! Playing with my family. Letting us beg in court for JUSTICE and they gave him NOTHING!”

During Thursday’s hearing before Judge Jean, McGowan’s attorneys Jude Faccidomo and Mycki Ratzan portrayed McGowan as a good kid gone wrong because of a combination of factors, from homelessness to poverty to abuse by separated parents.

A youth psychology expert testified those factors contributed to McGowan’s inability to understand consequences when he brought the gun to the Airbnb. His attorney said he bought the gun that killed Rengifo after three men beat and pistol-whipped him in a small shack behind a home that he had been living in.

Assistant Miami-Dade State Attorney Michael Spivak countered that McGowan was a small-time drug dealer while living in the shed and that if he was poor and had so few assets, the three men likely beat him up to steal whatever drugs he possessed.

Before her decision, Judge Jean allowed the Jackson family to air their feelings and McGowan read from a statement, often halting as he choked back tears and admitting the death of “Gigi” was a terrible mistake.

“I brought my baby to this city here and she’s gone. I never seen my baby no more. She never came back. You can’t feel my pain because she’s not your child,” Catherine Jackson told the judge. “I pray that God touches you. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. This is in God’s hands [now].”

Then McGowan apologized to the family.

“I’m so sorry. This is my fault. Gigi was one of the sweetest, most beautiful people I ever knew,” McGowan read from a prepared statement. “I can’t change what happened. That’s life... I think about this all the time. Why not me? I should never have brought it [the gun]. It was my idea of protection and what was going to make me feel cool. I wish I was the one who died. I know you hate me and I hate me, too.”

“I don’t hate you,” Catherine Jackson replied. “But you have to be punished for what you did. I pray he gets the help he needs... The devil was in you that day. Now you got to let God take over. You got to give your life to God.”