Boy Dies At Age 8, After Mom Charinez Jefferson Was Shot Dead While Pregnant With Him In 2011
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It was a case that rocked Chicago back in 2011 – a pregnant teen was shot in the head, back, and chest and murdered, but her baby survived.
CBS 2 has learned the 8-year-old boy has now died. And as Chris Tye reported Thursday night, police have returned to the case.
Charinez Jefferson was walking through Marquette Park one night in August 2011 with friends. She was 17 years old and eight months pregnant when Timothy Jones appeared with a gun at 64th and Whipple streets.
Police at the time said the gunman – whom no one in the group knew - got out of a car and walked up to them.
Then he opened fire, as everyone else scattered.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reported at the time that prosecutors said Jones intended to kill the young man – a member of a rival gang – who was walking with Jefferson at the time.
But that did not explain why Jones then shot Charinez multiple times while she begged for her life and authorities.
Charinez was killed. But in a story that made global headlines, her son did make it.
"I can't answer why he shot her," Charinez's mother, Debbie Jefferson, told Blakley at the time. "If I had that answer, I'd probably feel much better."
Debbie Jefferson died before Timothy Jones was sentenced to 90 years for the murder. But she navigated the tricky medical waters for her grandson.
Relatives told CBS 2 a hospital nurse ended up adopting the boy who was named Kahmani.
And so this week, when the name Kahmani Mims-Jefferson appeared on a Cook County Medical Examiner's office log, hearts sank.
The boy who lived inside his mother for 8 months made it 8 years on his own, dying March 8.
The cause of death was "complications of prematurity" and "multiple maternal gunshot wounds."
Jones is four years into that 90-year sentence for killing Charinez. Whether more time will be added now that the 8-year-old's death has been ruled a homicide is unclear.
Prosecutors have yet to get the case, and Chicago Police late Thursday were still investigating.
