A man was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison on Friday for the abduction and killing of a 13-year-old girl, Shavon Randle, in Dallas, Texas. Dallas County jurors sentenced Desmond Jones for the death of Randle. He was found guilty of organized criminal activity. The felony carries sentences up to life imprisonment.
Randle was reported missing from her home in Lancaster, Texas, for several days before her body was found in July 2017 inside an abandoned drug house in Oak Cliff area. Another man, identified as 19-year-old Michael Titus, was also found dead with Randle.
Marijuana theft, revenge, and murder
Randle's cousin told police that she received a call from an unknown man who said that the girl was being held against her will and had threatened to harm her. Investigation revealed that the cousin was the original target of the abduction as she was in a relationship with Kendall Perkins, the owner of a drug group.
The abduction was planned in retaliation to a previous theft worth $250,000 of marijuana Perkins. Randle was abducted as the cousin was not home when they arrived at a home of Randle's aunt, according to the Associated Press.
Jones told investigators that Titus was one of the kidnappers and shot Randle four times after she was able to see his face. The gang then shot and killed Titus for killing Randle and allowing the marijuana theft to happen in the first place.
The owner of the group, Darius Feilds, was convicted to 18 years in federal prison for weapons violations. Other gang members, Laquon Wilkerson and Devontae Owens, face trial on charges related to state-organized criminal activity that leads to the abduction and killing.
Father gets 72 years in prison for son's gruesome death
Jones was sentenced on the same day as a man was given 72 years in prison for the death of his seven-year-old son whose body was found encased in cement in a storage unit in Denver, Colorado. Leland Pankey, 40, received the maximum sentence for charges involving child abuse resulting in death and tampering with a deceased body in the death of Caden McWilliams.
