The devastated mom of an 11-year-old lady killed by a stray bullet outdoors a Bronx nail salon begged her killers for solutions in court docket Wednesday — as one of many teen thugs was hit with a 10-year sentence.
Yanisha Gomez stated in an emotional assertion in Bronx Supreme Court docket that the ache of shedding little Kyhara Tay within the mindless 2022 taking pictures stays recent three years later.
“This nightmare I don’t want upon anybody,” Gomez snapped on the baby-faced killers. “A mom ought to by no means really feel this ache. An harmless little one ought to by no means be taken away from a mom like this. I need to ask y’all, ‘Do you are feeling any regret, remorse, disgrace, guilt?”
“As a result of your intentions was to take one other younger teen and y’all ended up taking a soul who appreciated life and cherished God,” she stated. “Y’all denied her the chance to graduate, to be in love and to reside life. Y’all took away all of her desires.”
Matthew Godwin, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail as a part of a plead deal Wednesday, was simply 15 when he and then-18-year-old Omar Bojang rode up on a moped gunning for a 13-year-old boy on Might 16, 2022 — however hit Kyhara as a substitute, prosecutors stated.
She was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, the place she was pronounced useless.
The gun-toting teenagers, who have been caught on safety digicam footage, have been later arrested and arraigned on second-degree homicide fees on June 3, 2022, and have since been held behind bars.
“I’m so sorry for what I’ve performed and the ache I’ve precipitated you,” Godwin advised Gomez in court docket Wednesday. “I’m additionally very dissatisfied in myself and the ache I’ve precipitated you. I take full accountability for my motion.”
“As I obtained older, I spotted I took the lifetime of an 11-year-old harmless younger lady,” he stated. “At nights, I cry myself to sleep, realizing what I’ve performed. Not a day goes by once I don’t really feel remorse and regret.”
They each pleaded responsible final month in trade for agreed-to sentences, with Godwin getting 10 years and Bojang anticipated to be sentenced to fifteen years on Might 14 after assembly with probation officers.
The older gunman additionally addressed the lady’s mother in court docket/
“I simply need to pay my dues to society and you already know, simply present everybody that I’m not the monster everyone created or put me as much as be,” Bojang stated. “I wouldn’t need this ache on anyone. I’m additionally sorry to my mother and my dad and my household for letting you down. They raised me to be higher than that.”
Bronx District Legal professional Darcel Clark known as the lethal taking pictures “a disaster for our younger individuals.”
Kyhara was a scholar at MS 424, the Bronx Academy for Multi-Media.
The bubbly lady’s household stated she was named after Kiara, the cub within the Disney animated flick “Lion King II,” with the Y and H, that are her mother’s initials, added to the identify.
“Dad is telling me Kyhara is the daughter of lions as a result of the household is so shut that they’re all the time collectively, like a pleasure,” police advised reporters after the taking pictures.
The lady’s tragic dying got here within the midst of a string of shootings within the 5 boroughs focusing on teenagers and children, together with the 17-year-old son of an NYPD cop, a 14-year-old boy wounded within the Bronx every week earlier than Kyhara’s dying, and a 3-year-old lady who was wounded whereas leaving a Brownsville day care middle along with her dad in broad daylight.
“I can’t imagine that I discover myself on this place,” Yanisha Gomez stated in Bronx Supreme Court docket on Wednesday. “As a mom I’ll say I’ll always remember the day that I misplaced my little one. I’ll preserve asking God for justice, both from right here or from the afterlife.
“Our solely hope is that justice will prevail.”
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