Mom of slain Brooklyn teen slams judge for granting killer delayed sentence
Supreme Court Justice Matthew Blum on Thursday handed down the negotiated sentence to Quran Smith, 20, for Lewis' murder, but not before granting the killer's request to finish a college-level course at a Brooklyn juvenile detention center before shipping him upstate on June 27.
'[The defendant] did, for no reason, no apparent reason whatsoever, take the life of a young man,' Judge Blum said in his decision to delay the start of Smith's sentence by more than three months. 'That being said, he has taken the right steps. I will sentence him today, I will stay the execution of the sentence so he can complete a college program.'
Judge Blum's mercy was wasted on Smith, according to the victim's mother, who told the Daily News that her son's killer — just 16 years old when he pulled the trigger — has no hope for redemption.
'He should have gone straight upstate,' Carlene Watt said. 'He's not gonna change. Any kid that commits that type of crime is not gonna change.'
Smith was the last of three defendants to be sentenced in Lewis' murder, all of whom belonged to the Folk No Love City gang, said prosecutors. Blum sentenced Malachi Simms, 19, to 14 years to life in prison and Frantzy Alexandre, 20, to 10 years in prison on April 15.
Watt said that none of her son's killers received the sentence they deserved — death.
'Honestly, I wish they had got the death penalty because they took my son while he was in school,' said Watt.
Surveillance video shows the teen gangbangers lurking behind the victim's car parked outside the Urban Dove Charter School, on E. 21st St. near Avenue K, where they ambushed Lewis on April 29, 2021.
Smith and Simms did the shooting, striking Lewis in the gut, while Alexandre was spotted passing a firearm to one of his teen accomplices, prosecutors said.
Police charged Smith and Simms less than two weeks after the shooting, when they found Smith in possession of a firearm that prosecutors said was used to gun down Lewis.
Earlier this year Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said the killing of Lewis, who prosecutors identified as a member of the Bloodhound Brims, caused long-simmering tensions between the victim's Bloods-affiliated street gang and the defendants' Folk Nation clique to boil over and ignite a gang war that played out over several years in music videos, social media posts and street violence.
Watt denied her son's involvement in a gang and called the D.A.'s remarks that his death fueled a gang war 'despicable.'
'They are trying to make my son a scapegoat,' Watt told the Daily News. 'They are exploiting my son's case for their own benefit.'
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