41 years jail for Brooklyn man who killed Guyanese teen

[NY Daily News] – A Brooklyn man got a 41-year maximum prison sentence Tuesday for shooting a 16-year-old Guyanese girl who authorities said rejected his advances.

Though authorities said Taariq Stephens gunned down Shemel Mercurius in front of her 3-year-old cousin after she spurned Stephens, Brooklyn Justice Deborah Dowling said there “did not seem to be a rhyme or reason” for the fatal 2016 shooting when she sentenced him.

“I’m not showing any mercy,” Dowling added. She ruled that all Stephens’ convictions will run consecutive so he will serve 41 years in prison despite his beating a murder charge.

Last month, jurors said Stephens, 26, was guilty of manslaughter, weapon possession and endangerment of a child. He was acquitted of murder. That didn’t change the view of Shemel’s family and prosecutors during the sentencing — the teen was murdered as they saw it.

“Words cannot express the abyss that is now in our hearts since our beloved gem has been taken from us,” aunt Latoya Mercurius-Pryce said in court, voice shaking and family sobbing rows behind.

“No one should ever have to receive such a call. No one should have to wash blood from their 3 years old traumatized baby as he frantically tries but unable to express himself,” Mercurius-Pryce said. “No one should have to console their family because of Taariq’s irreparable act.”

She said her family was “forever broken” and later added, “Our question still remains unanswered as to why.” Stephens and Shemel, an Edward R. Murrow High School student, knew each other for a couple weeks before he barged into the East Flatbush apartment where the high schooler was babysitting her young cousin on May 31, 2016.

He shot her at near point blank range with a .40-caliber rifle, Brooklyn prosecutors said. According to trial evidence, Shemel used her dying breaths to gasp her shooter’s first name to police.

Assistant District Attorney Melissa Carvajal said the shooting was “one of the most tragic cases I’ve ever tried.” Shemel was “tragically and senselessly murdered inside her own home.” She pressed for Stephens to get the maximum time.

Stephens said in court Tuesday he didn’t do the crime and insisted the evidence on him was falsified. “I maintain my innocence,” he said. “I am truly sorry for your loss,” he said to Shemel’s family. He said he lost a “good friend” in the incident.

Stephens’ lawyer, Jay Cohen, said the incident was an “aberrational act” for someone with no criminal past. “I believe there is still room for redemption,” Cohen said.

The judge brushed off Stephens’ claims of innocence. “All the evidence indicates it is you,” she said.

“Justice was served,” Mercurius-Pryce told reporters outside court. “Nothing can bring Shemel back to her devastated family, but I hope that today’s sentence will afford them a small measure of solace,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.