Fresno prostitute punished in murder her pimp committed

FRESNO, Calif. -- A Fresno woman whose testimony helped get her pimp convicted of murder will also head to prison for the death of her friend and drug dealer.

Gypsy Hall says she never meant for Lorenzo McCray to die, but his killer never would've gotten inside McCray's apartment without her.

Hall pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery instead of facing a murder trial, and she asked for probation after testifying in the trial that put gunman Damone Mayberry in prison for life.

"She helped someone take someone's life," says Kathy O'Guinn, McCray's sister. "That's not a slap on the hand."

O'Guinn thinks even if Hall didn't plan the murder, she could've stopped it. She could've warned McCray.

"You had time to tell Lorenzo what he was coming in there to do," O'Guinn said. "You had time. All this was premeditated. You had time to stop it and you didn't."

Hall says Mayberry forced her to participate and never told her he planned to kill McCray, but the testimony at trial showed she attacked a woman in the apartment with McCray and kept her silent with a threat.

She herself stole a purse and drugs from McCray's apartment, while also helping get rid of evidence afterward.

Hall says she doesn't remember everything because drugs left her with a hole in her memory.

She was on Xanax, meth, marijuana and liquor that day in September 2018.

She tried to explain herself to McCray's sister and the judge.

"I was there to buy drugs and that's it," Hall said in court. "I didn't have no idea he was going to do that at all."

"I appreciate that, but the facts of the incident that were established also show that once you were in there, you were a clear participant," said Judge Jonathan Conklin.

Under her plea deal, the maximum sentence for Hall was 13 years in prison. The judge gave her 12 years and four months.

He said her life's been tragic and she's not irredeemable, but conduct comes with consequences.