A Kansas City, Missouri, man who fatally shot a father then shot and paralyzed the dad’s 10-year-old son will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
KCTV reported that a Jackson County judge sentenced Dontae Jefferson to life without parole for the first-degree murder of Ka’Vyea Curry, 34.
The judge also ordered that life sentences for unlawful use of a weapon and armed criminal action, and a seven-year sentence for endangering the welfare of a child will run concurrently to the murder sentence. A life sentence for a second armed criminal action conviction will run consecutively to the first sentence, the local station wrote.
Surveillance footage from April 18, 2014, which can be viewed below, captured Jefferson following Curry and Ka’Vyea Tyson-Curry after they got into their car and opened fire. The father died instantly, while a bullet struck the 10-year-old’s spine. An unrelated 5-year-old boy in the car wasn’t injured, according to the Kansas City Star.
Prosecutors claimed Jefferson killed the father for witnessing a 2004 robbery that Jefferson later pleaded guilty to. KPLR noted that Jefferson fatally shot Curry 10 months after completing a 10-year sentence.
Though Jefferson expressed remorse for shooting the then-10-year-old, he didn’t apologize for killing the boy’s father. Tyson-Curry, who is now 13, chose to attend school over Wednesday’s sentencing.
Jarrett Johnson, Jefferson’s defense attorney, argued that the 10-year sentence changed his client’s personality and that he received no rehabilitation before his release.
“My client, when he was still learning how to be a human being, got thrown in with the wolves in prison when he should have been put into a program to rehabilitate him,” Johnson said.
“It is not an excuse, but I think we as a community who fear crime also ought to fear how we treat young offenders and what happens to them if we lock them up for a decade and throw away the key.”
The defense attorney’s testimony led the child’s grandfather to leave the courtroom in disgust.
“In my opinion, he is pure evil personified,” Forest Tyson said.
“He is not human, he might have all the body parts and heart but he does not have a soul.”
The 8th grader told KPLR that he still struggles with pain from the shooting and has trouble talking about the incident. Nevertheless, he said he enjoys playing video games and has a girlfriend—smiling when revealing that he got his first kiss.
“Everybody is saying ‘aw, you will walk again bro.’ And I am like, ‘no I won’t.’ They are just lying to me basically,” the teen said.
“I want to believe it but it is not going to happen.”
WARNING: The following video footage is disturbing and graphic. Please use discretion.
[Featured Image: Jackson County Jail]
