By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A 21-year-old who pleaded guilty in the shooting death of a two-year-old St. Joseph girl has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg sentenced 21-year-old Marcain Kimbrough-Ballard of St. Joseph after an emotional hearing in a Buchanan County courtroom in which tears were shed by family members of both the victim and the defendant. The prosecutor's office requested life in prison.
Kimbrough-Ballard, in an earlier court hearing, admitted to firing shots into another car in August of last year. He stated he didn’t know Raelynn Craig was a passenger in the back seat.
Kellogg pronounced the sentenced after hearing emotional testimony from Raelynn’s family and pleas for mercy from the family of Kimbrough-Ballard.
Two others are accused in the shooting at the Frog Hop at 20th and Messanie August 9th. Fourteen shots were fired into the car, wounding two adults in the car, plus the fatal shot to the head of Raelynn.
Twenty-one-year-old Caimon Ramone Stillman of St. Joseph pleaded guilty for his role in the deadly shooting. His sentencing is set for later in April.
A third man involved in the shooting, 20-year-old Te’Avion Hawkins of Platte City, is scheduled to appear in court in late April.
