Man gets life sentence plus 48 years in shooting of military vet

A Navy man who fired an assault rifle into a military veteran’s home – almost killing the veteran – was sentenced to life in prison Friday.

The unusually stiff sentence came after the judge heard how the gunfire forever changed Jeremy Tammone’s life. He was critically wounded in October 2017 when

Jaeyoung Lee fired an assault rifle into his Fairfax County townhome.

“Two bullets went through my abdomen,” Tammone said. “One severed my stomach almost clean off. There is a giant void in my brain, big black spot. I lost approximately 10-15% of my brain matter.”

Lee had been stalking an ex-girlfriend and learned Tammone, a Marines and Army veteran who had been to Iraq, was helping her buy a car.

In court Friday, Tammone and his family described the life-changing impact the crime had on their lives. Because of the damage to his organs, Tammone cannot eat or drink. His parents, now 80, are spending their retirement years as fulltime caregivers. Tammone’s promising career as an analyst for a defense contractor, ended.

“It’s absolutely, extraordinarily devastating,” the judge told the family. “I don’t have words for it.”

He sentenced Lee to life plus 48 years in prison.

“That was six-and-a-half years of weight lifted and the appropriate close of this chapter, this horrific chapter of my life – our life, my family and everybody included,” Tammone said.

“He deserves it, as far as I’m concerned,” said Tammone’s father. “There’s no excuse for what that man did.”

Tammone hopes he’s a candidate for a multiorgan transplant to get a pancreas, stomach and intestines so maybe someday he can eat and drink again. 

“My life is forever changed,” he said. “It will never get back to where it was, but with this outcome, I think I can get close and be me again.”