12-year-old Murdered Over Cellphone, Defendant Faces 50 Years

By Kate Abbey-Lambertz, HuffingtonPost

Almost two years ago, Kadejah Davis-Talton, then 12, was shot to death at her home in Detroit over a disagreement about a cellphone. On Tuesday, the man convicted in her killing was told he could face 50 years in prison.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda Evans sentenced Joshua Brown, age 21, to 24 to 50 years for second-degree murder, 14 to 30 years for assault with intent to murder, which he is to serve concurrently, and an additional mandatory two years for a felony firearm charge, according to the Detroit Free Press.

According to prosecutors, the man’s mother, Heather Brown, drove her son to and from Davis-Talton’s home on Jan. 31, 2012 after she had gotten in a dispute over her missing cellphone with Almanda Talton, the girl’s mother.

Talton said she found a phone in public restroom at a tax business and gave it to an employee, according CBS Detroit. She thought Joshua Brown came to her home to discuss something else, and then shut the door on him after talking to him briefly. Brown, then 19, fired several shots through the door, according to prosecutors, striking and killing Kadejah Davis-Talton. (. . .)

“Why would two mothers risk their children’s lives over such a minor thing as a cellphone?” Evans asked before sentencing, the Detroit News reports. “A mother’s worst nightmare was experienced the night Kadejah was killed.” (. . .)

Davis-Talton was a sixth-grade student who had straight A’s and had just celebrated her birthday before her death.

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