By Warren Kulo
Prosecutors will seek enhanced sentencing for the two suspects accused of killing a 9-year-old girl while she slept, Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood said Friday.
Tyrone Deairus Williams, 19, and Ariel Rapheal Curry, 22, were taken into custody Thursday and charged with the killing of 9-year-old Cailee Knight, who was shot dead when shots were fired into the home where she was asleep on a couch in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Blackwood said investigators believe Williams was the shooter, while Curry was driving the vehicle during the apparent drive-by shooting, which Blackwood said stemmed from a dispute over a failed relationship and was also possibly gang-related.
“It appears there was some type of personal dispute between people that led to this horrific shooting,” Blackwood said. “It boiled over to the shooting at this house where the girl was sleeping on the couch.
“I’m told it was over a relationship which had gone awry and boiled over into this shooting scenario, which is an absolute worst case scenario that we see, when a completely innocent child is killed like this.”
Under a new state law which took effect in September, defendants can face stiffer sentencing guidelines if a crime is found to be gang-related. Blackwood said his office will pursue those enhancement against Williams and Curry.
“We’ll pursue those sentencing enhancement in any case where we can,” Blackwood said. “We do believe there’s a gang component to this shooting. For the sentencing enhancements to apply, the crime would have to be in the furtherance of gang activity. That part is unclear right now, but it’s still under investigation.”
For a murder charge, the minimum sentence is 10 years. That increases to 20 years if the crime is committed with a gun. Under the new law, a gang-related murder carries a minimum sentence of 25 years, Blackwood said. The maximum is life in all three cases.
However, a capital murder charge — which carries a possible death penalty — is also a possibility for Williams and Curry. Blackwood said his office would have to prove there was a specific intent to kill someone when the shots were fired.
“So with murder, it’s an intentional act that causes a death. With capital murder, it’s a specific intent to kill a person. We can get into a potential situation which we call transferred intent, where a defendant may intend to kill one person and then kill someone else.”
During Tuesday’s Mobile City Council meeting, chief of staff James Barber said the target of the shooting was Cailee Knight’s 16-year-old brother. Barber also said she was shot with an AR-15 rifle. Blackwood said Friday he was unaware of the murder weapon being recovered.
Blackwood also said the investigation continues and “anyone who needs to be held accountable will be held accountable.”
He also said his office has yet to have much contact with Cailee Knight’s family.
“I do know they’re hearts are breaking like our hearts are breaking, too,” Blackwood said. “I can’t imagine the loss they’ve suffered. We stand here to help them and to help our entire community in this case.”
Both Williams and Curry are being held at Mobile Metro Jail, charged with felony murder, discharging a gun into an occupied building. Williams is additionally charged with attempting to elude police, while Curry is charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle.
They are being held without bail and Blackwood said his office will seek to have both defendants held until trial under Aniya’s Law, which permits judges to deny bail to violent offenders. Although neither Williams nor Curry have any prior convictions, according to state court records, Blackwood said the heinous nature of this crime has prompted his office to seek application of Aniya’s Law in this case.
