Mom's Deathbed Words Read to Daughter's Killer in Court

Timothy Jones sentenced to 90 years for murder of Charinez Jefferson
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 20, 2016 1:33 AM CDT
Updated Jul 20, 2016 7:00 AM CDT
Mom's Deathbed Words Read to Daughter's Killer in Court
Timothy Jones   (Chicago PD)

On Monday, a judge sentenced Chicagoan Timothy Jones, 23, to 90 years in prison for the 2011 death of a pregnant 17-year-old. But other sentences from that day were just as impactful: those of victim Charinez Jefferson's mother, Debbie Jefferson, who lost her life to bone cancer in February and whose deathbed message to Jones was read by a prosecutor, reports the Chicago Tribune. "I watched you during the trial and you showed no remorse," said Jefferson. "So maybe you wouldn't know how I feel. From this day forward, when you open and close your mouth and eyes, and you are still able to walk and talk, stop and take a minute and think about the lives you destroyed." Charinez, who was eight months pregnant, isn't the only one unable to walk and talk in the aftermath of Jones' crime: Her unborn son Kahmani was saved, but he exists in a vegetative state.

Jefferson called Charinez as she was walking home from a corner store with a male friend in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on Aug. 16, 2011. "Here I come, Mama," Jefferson recalled her saying, reports the Tribune. Minutes later, Jones fired two shots at the man, a member of a rival gang. The intended victim ran, so Jones turned to Charinez, shooting her eight times: in the foot, ankle, thigh, buttock, chest, and neck, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. A witness testified that she begged Jones to spare her and her unborn child; instead, he shouted an expletive at her, reports the Tribune. Kahmani's brain was deprived of oxygen, and his skull was fractured as Charinez fell to the ground. Said Jefferson, "All of your sleepless nights and dreary days, I pray you ask God for forgiveness and to have mercy on your soul." (More deathbed stories.)

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