The somber courtroom echoed with the pain of a family robbed of their patriarch as Quandarius Richardson, convicted of the 2018 murder of Phil Trenary, the former CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Monday. According to WREG, Trenary's son, Pearce Trenary, expressed his unrelenting grief, "I don’t forgive you. I don’t feel sorry for you and I wish nothing but the worst for you," further lashing out at the injustice served by the sentence.
Feeling that justice was not completely rendered, Trenary's family confronted Richardson with their anguish. "He was my rock. He was one of the most generous people I’ve ever met," said Trenary’s daughter Brittney Rowe, reflecting on her father's character while assaulted by the tragedy that befell him, as reported by FOX13 Memphis.
In an expression of scorn and anger, Phil's son, Pearce, told WREG, "Thirty-five years just isn’t enough," and condemned the system that "forced" the family into accepting the plea deal Richardson took last week. "And unfortunately, it doesn’t do it justice. That’s what the system kind of forced us into, unfortunately. But that doesn’t make it right and that doesn’t provide closure," Pearce Trenary said.
While Richardson has been adjudged to serve without the possibility of parole, this outcome provides cold comfort to those suffering Trenary's loss. His family, forever marred by the events of that September evening, still struggles with the agony that no sentence can alleviate. Brittney Rowe's words encapsulated the sorrow felt by Trenary's kin, "You were trying to rob somebody for tangible things, but all you did was rob our family and this city," as she testified, reported by WREG.
The family's stance is united in grief and disappointment over what they perceive as a lenient punishment for a crime that stole so much more than a life. Richardson, at that time 18 years old and now faced with spending a significant portion of his existence behind bars, has not displayed overt remorse to the eyes watching him in the courtroom, as detailed by Trenary's daughter to WREG. "I’ve observed over the past six years, I’ve observed him in the courtroom every time I go by a gut sense. And I just don’t sense that he is remorseful for his actions," Rowe said.
