South Florida family outraged after son's killer's sentence: "Two years for a life?"
The family of a 17-year-old high school football star killed in 2022 is speaking out in anger and heartbreak after a Miami-Dade County judge sentenced the teen who shot him to just two years in prison.
"Two years for a life?"
Mehki Stevenson was shot and killed on November 29, 2022, while doing homework inside his North Miami home. His mother, Sonya Stevenson, said Tuesday's sentencing felt like reliving the tragedy all over again.
"I just feel like I'm burying Mehki all over again," she said. "That's how the verdict made me feel. Two years? Two years for a life? Two years? We have waited longer for justice than the time that she gave him. They failed me. They failed me terribly."
The 17-year-old shooter admitted to pulling the trigger. Prosecutors told the judge he entered Mehki's home with several other teens, showed off a gun, and then shot Mehki after being told to put it away.
The judge told the Stevenson family that the teen shooter deserves a second chance, according to Sonya.
A mother's warnings and a lost future
Sonya Stevenson said she had warned her son to stay away from the shooter and had never allowed him in her home.
"Nobody knows what I lived through to keep this young man away from my home because I saw all the concerning behavior that made me say he's not right," she said. "He's driving a car at 15-years-old by himself."
She's haunted by her son's final moments.
"I just can't stop thinking about the way he died," she said. "I know my child was afraid. I know he was panicking when that bullet hit his chest, and the fact that I couldn't be there to comfort him is destroying me."
Mehki, a North Miami High School football standout, had dreams of playing in the NFL like his idol, Lamar Jackson.
Family calls for change
Stevenson's loved ones delivered victim impact statements in court, hoping to convey the depth of their pain. Now, they're calling for changes to the juvenile justice system.
The family wants lawmakers to take a harder stance on violent crimes committed by minors and reconsider the level of leniency given to offenders.
"They failed me terribly," Sonya said.
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