Reality of gun violence plays out during sentencing of teen in 2021 Lansing murder
LANSING — The tragic reality of gun violence played out in a Lansing courtroom on Wednesday as a teenager was sentenced to decades in prison for killing another teen in June 2021.
One by one, members of Jemaris Leek Jr.'s family berated 18-year-old Jaydin Wilder in Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina's courtroom, sometimes weeping, sometimes shouting hysterically.
"You took him away from us for no reason," his father, Jemaris Leek Sr., said. "You have no sympathy for what you did."
Leek Sr. noted that he'd never get to see his son "grow up to be a football star." The boy's mother contemplated living the rest of her life without him. Other family members verbally wished for Wilder to die in prison or spend the rest of his life there.
"What you did in that moment was cold, calculating, and when you pulled that trigger, it was final," Aquilina told Wilder before sentencing him to 30 years to 75 years in prison. "And you knew it was final, and you didn’t care."
Wilder initially was charged with open murder and three weapons counts in the shooting of the younger Leek at a residence in the 2900 block of East Jolly Road. Jemaris was a student and football player at Everett High School.
Both Leek and Wilder were 17 at the time of the shooting.
Wilder pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November with an agreement he would get a fixed minimum prison term of 30 years.
Deputy Chief Assistant Ingham County Prosecutor Bill Crino said Leek's family consented to the offer and showed "tremendous courage, restraint and respect" in working with his office.
The plea deal "attempts in some legal way to address the tragic loss of Jemaris Leek's young life," while sparing the boy's family the trauma of sitting through a trial, he said.
Crino said the shooting was motivated by Wilder's participation in organized gang activity. He said Wilder showed an "utter lack of remorse" and a "callous disregard for human life."
Assistant Ingham County Public Defender Duane Silverthorn, one of Wilder's attorneys, said the tragedy grew out of the street-justice "cycle of violence, revenge, retaliation."
"It goes on and on and on and on, and it doesn't seem like it's ending," he said. "It seems like it's getting worse."
Silverthorn said Wilder grew up without a father, and the streets became his "adoptive parents." Wilder thought he was justified in his actions because his brother had been shot, he said.
"But it was the code ...," Silverthorn added. "I abhor it."
Aquilina also decried street violence and said there are too many guns in the community. She said she is "in the process of doing a weapons court" to help address the problem.
"I often override plea agreements, but I'm not going to do that in this case ...," because a trial would cause more trauma for Jemaris' family, she said.
Aquilina said Wilder should participate in "animal therapy" if it's available where he's housed.
"No one in this courtroom knows why you did it," she told Wilder. "I'm hoping that during your incarceration you learn how to love, unconditionally, your fellow man."
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Reality of gun violence plays out at Lansing teen's murder sentencing
