Defense attorneys said during the trial that Polk had come to the home the night before the shooting and banged on the door. Epps turned him away.
The next day, he returned, high on methamphetamine and cannabis, and was told to leave again. He entered the house anyway, and shortly after, Epps shot him in the left arm and torso.
Epps’ defense attorneys said he was acting in self-defense, telling the jury that Polk had been acting “erratically” and threatening to “air out” Epps. Polk had just gotten into a verbal altercation with maintenance workers out front.
Prosecutors posed a different narrative: They argued that Epps was motivated by a simmering dispute between the men over how frequently Polk visited the house. Attorneys were not allowed to present his criminal history to the jury, but Polk was a registered sex offender and had prior convictions for domestic abuse against Gul.
“My father made many mistakes, but he always faced the consequences,” Jazmine, Polk’s oldest daughter, said ahead of the sentencing on Wednesday. “He would tell the best stories, cook the best burgers.”
She said one of their favorite places to be together was the Glen Park home, where she said Polk visited often.
“To claim that Epps didn’t know my dad or was scared of him was not true,” Jazmine Polk said.
In asking for a noncustodial sentence, Epps’ defense attorneys had argued that the gun possession charge should serve as the principal term, carrying the greatest punishment.
“I have many thoughts about Mr. Epps’ possession of that illegal gun that night, but to conclude that that is the principal crime here, would diminish the killing of a man — [who] amongst everyone who appears here today … is probably the least empowered in our society,” Judge Brian Ferrall said. “A person on parole, addicted to drugs, unhoused, unemployed, no real resources and armed with a remote control at the moment of death.”
Epps had faced several potential aggravating sentencing factors weighed separately from the main charges, but the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision on those. They were dismissed and not considered in the sentence on Wednesday.
The judge also granted a defense motion to not consider his prior residential burglary conviction from 1997 as a strike, which could have added several years to his sentence.
