The mother of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee said she had waited years for this moment.
A pair of reputed gang members convicted in the shocking 2015 revenge slaying of Tyshawn in a Chicago alley received lengthy prison terms Wednesday that will likely keep them off the streets for the rest of their lives.
Dwright Doty, 22, who was convicted of first-degree murder for luring the boy from a park into the alley and shooting him point-blank in the head, was sentenced to 90 years in prison and three years of supervision, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney.
Corey Morgan, 31, who prosecutors said ordered the hit — believing the gang that Tyshawn’s father belonged to was behind the killing of Morgan’s brother — was sentenced to 65 years in prison with three years of supervision, the prosecutor’s office said.
Neither defendant addressed the court. The sentences provide no chance for parole, prosecutors said.
Tyshawn’s mother, Karla Lee, spoke to reporters after the sentencing.
“It’s been really hard for me,” she said. “I have been waiting for this day for four years. I’m just happy that I got justice… I’m glad my son got what he deserved and that’s justice.”
The two defendants were convicted in October.
After the shooting, Tyshawn’s small body was left crumpled on the concrete in a case that shocked a city long accustomed to gun violence.
“This case has rocked all of us in the city of Chicago and quite frankly the nation with its heinous and horrific nature,” Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said after sentencing.
Prosecutors said the boy was targeted and “executed” as revenge after the killing of Morgan’s brother.
Morgan’s lawyers maintained that Doty acted alone. Doty’s lawyer blamed Morgan for the killing.
In September, the getaway driver, Kevin Edwards, pleaded guilty in exchange for a 25-year sentence, CNN affiliate WLS-TV reported. In August, another one of Morgan’s brothers, Anthony, was sentenced to four years in prison for buying the gun used to kill Tyshawn.
Doty and Morgan, reputed members of the Black P. Stone Nation’s Bang Bang Gang, or BBGs, were looking to exact revenge for the killing of Morgan’s brother and the wounding of his mother in October 2015 by members of the rival Gangster Disciples Killa Ward group, according to prosecutors.
Tyshawn’s father, Pierre Stokes, allegedly belonged to the Killa Ward faction.
On a warm and sunny November afternoon in 2015, Tyshawn was still in his school uniform when he told his grandmother he loved her and raced across the street to a South Side park with his basketball.
In Dawes Park, Doty allegedly approached Tyshawn, talked to him and even dribbled the basketball to gain his trust, prosecutors said. He then picked up the ball and lured the boy to an alley. Morgan and Edwards waited nearby in a black SUV.
An autopsy of Tyshawn’s body showed two perforating gunshot wounds, and part of his right thumb was lost as a defensive wound trying to block a gunshot, according to court papers. There was a gunshot wound to the head, a bullet graze wound to his right upper back, and a superficial wound to the right forearm.
