2 Charged With Killing Sleeping 8-Year-Old Boy Due In Court
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A man and teenager are scheduled to return to court in the death of an 8-year-old boy who was shot while sleeping inside his Detroit home.
A preliminary hearing to determine if the case goes to trial is Wednesday afternoon in 36th District Court for 28-year-old Calvin Mosby and 17-year-old Devaunte Starks.
They're charged with first-degree murder in the July 30 slaying of Jakari Pearson. Police Jakari was sleeping in his upstairs bedroom when his was struck in the chest by a bullet that penetrated a wall at the Brewster Homes public housing project in the 600 block of East Street, near Mack Ave.and I-75.
Prosecutors have described it as a retaliatory shooting. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Mosby had Jakari's mother and went to the housing project to threaten her the previous day.
Jakari's slaying follows the July 1 shooting death of a 2-year-old girl in Inkster, southwest of Detroit. Police in that case have said KaMiya Gross was killed in front of her father as retaliation from an earlier shooting. Two men are charged in her death.
"Nothing is sacred anymore," Worthy said in a statement. "This is the second such incident in a few weeks in which a young child was allegedly deliberately and callously killed to get back at their parent. It is troubling on multiple levels and illustrates how wildly out of control crime is in Wayne County."
Mosby and Starks also face attempted murder and firearms charges. Starks has been charged as an adult.
The Brewster Homes are two- and three-bedroom attached townhouses. Jakari and his mother lived in a corner unit, and he often was out in the yards and parking lot playing baseball with friends, neighbors said.
B'atrice Spears, whose son played with Jakari, said she'll always remember the boy's smiling face.
"He was a sweetheart. Every time I seen him, he was always smiling. There was never a time he wasn't smiling," she said.
Jakari would have been starting fourth grade this fall.
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