MORAINE — It took 20 minutes for Marshell Gillis’ life to change on May 8, 2020.
A man in the backseat of the car she was driving opened fire, shooting at least seven shots through the front seat paralyzing her forever.
That man, Shaquille Shackleford, learned he will be in prison until he’s at least 83 years old.
>> MORE: Shooter who paralyzed woman in Moraine Red Roof Inn shooting gets more prison time
“I’m just glad that he’s facing time for it, because I couldn’t still live knowing that he’s out here living his life without justice,” Gillis told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell after Friday’s sentencing.
“It doesn’t always have to be you involved in crime or you doing something out here to where it gets you to get shot,” Gillis said. “It’s very scary that a person will take their time out of their day to mess up their life, to mess up yours.”
Gillis said she’d just met Shackleford about 20 minutes before the shooting happened in May 2020 at the Red Roof Inn on Dryden Road in Moraine.
“The worst can happen to the good people,” she said.
Now, Gillis is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down.
She’s had a hard time with how her life has changed, especially when her 7-year-old daughter isn’t quite sure what caused her mother’s life to change.
“My life changed,” Gillis said. “From doing whatever I want to do in my life, to now having to work around new things.”
But, she says that doesn’t change her relationship with her daughter.
“Just so my daughter knows, there is a way around anything,” she said. “I still can be the same mom. I still can take care of you. Still can take care of myself.”
Gillis said even though Shackleford caused her way of life to change, she still hopes he finds God amid his “bad decision.”
“Even though he did something wrong to me, I still pray for him,” Gillis said. “There was no reason that I had to go through this at all...sometimes people do things and don’t think.”
Gillis said if there is one lesson she wants others to learn from her experience it’s that “nothing can stop you.”
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