Ke’Von Smith was sentenced to 18 years in prison last Tuesday, for voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the case of killing nine-year-old Alexandrea “Sissy” Thompson and wounding her father Alex, but the family is not satisfied.
Smith is the first of three—the other two are Azuriah Hoskins and Chyanne Daniels—to be sentenced by Judge Hendon of Hamilton County in the murder of the nine-year-old Sissy in Mt. Auburn, Ohio, and the wounding of her father Alex Thompson, in 2017, in their home in Mt. Auburn, Ohio, WCPO reported.
“You didn’t care about your own daughter, and you certainly didn’t care about mine,” Amber Caudell, mother of Sissy said to Ke’Von Smith, now 21. She continued, “Because you shot her in the back. Killed her.”
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According to the indictment, Smith and his four accomplices barged into the Thompson’s home on Jan. 18, 2017.
Smith delivered the fatal shot. The bullet entered her back, then pierced her heart and launched itself into her father Alex. He survived his injuries. Alexandrea died at a Children’s Hospital hours later. Later, the gang admitted they had made a mistake and had chosen the wrong address.
Caudell insisted that Smith knew he was in the wrong place at the time, however: “You could have left, you could have been a hero. You walked past children with a loaded gun. I don’t see that as any sort of accident. You decided to go with your natural instincts to terrify a 9-year-old girl before you shot her in the back. You’ll always be known as the guy who killed a 9-year-old girl in Cincinnati.”
She went on, referring to Smith’s daughter: “As she goes through life, I hope she chooses a role model better than her father, as I’m sure you do too. And know that you’re a loser, a coward and a punk.”
Smith declined to say something in court himself.
After pronouncing the sentence, Judge Hendon said, “What kind of a man takes a little girl from her bed and hold a gun to her head and ultimately causes her death and then doesn’t even man up until is caught basically a year later. You’re going to have 18 years to figure that out.”
For the family, 18 years is not enough. “A life for a life. You took a life from us,” said Sissy’s aunt Aja Bryant to Local 12.
“We have to go and see her and talk to her headstone and remember the short amount of time that she was here, just those memories. She didn’t even get to see 10 years of her life. How unfair is that?”
“To me, 18 years is not that—I turn 18 soon. Eighteen years is not that long. It just breaks my heart that it had to be her,” said Sissy’s sister Avalynn.
Even after his release from prison, Smith will be on parole and will have to register with the violent offender registry. Ke’Von Smith was initially charged with murder but pleaded down to voluntary manslaughter. Hoskins and Daniels are still facing murder charges and are yet to be sentenced.
A fourth suspect, then 18-year-old Jahmaria Cruz, was fatally shot during a robbery four months after the incident. A fifth suspect remains unidentified but is believed to be a woman, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
