WASHINGTON — Five years after her death, four members of the Wellington Park Gang were sentenced to decades in prison for the killing of 10-year-old Makiyah Wilson in 2018 — bringing the total amount of prison time handed down for her murder to nearly 270 years.
Darrise Jeffers, Qujuan Thomas, Quentin Michals and Gregory Taylor were convicted by a jury earlier this year of first degree murder, conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, participation in a criminal street gang and multiple other counts for the July 16, 2018, shooting that killed 10-year-old Makiyah and injured four others. On Friday, all four men appeared before D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Okun and were sentenced as follows:
- Qujuan Thomas: 68 years in prison
- Gregory Taylor: 65 years in prison
- Quentin Michals: 40 years in prison
- Darrise Jeffers: 35 years in prison
The defendants will also be required to serve five years of supervised release following their prison terms. They will receive credit for time served in pretrial detention since their arrests following the 2018 shooting.
Cumulatively, Friday's sentences along with a previous sentence for a fifth defendant also convicted of Makiyah's murder, Isaiah Murchinson, brought the total prison term handed down for the 10-year-old's death to 268 years. A sixth defendant acquitted of the murder count by convicted of taking part in the conspiracy, Marquell Cobbs, was sentenced earlier this month to six years in prison.
All four men sentenced Friday faced mandatory minimum sentences of 30 years in prison, but prosecutors from the Assistant U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. argued three of them deserved significantly more time than that. For Michals, who made sure his co-defendants had the "best weapons, the best vehicle and the best driver" that day, prosecutors sought 64 years in prison. For Thomas and Taylor, who were accused of being two of the shooters that day, prosecutors sought more than 70 years each.
“Who was killed did not matter to Gregory Taylor or his co-defendants. Their enemy was Clay Terrace and everyone who lived in that community — men, women and children," prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys for the men, all of whom are in their 20s, argued a prison term closer to the mandatory minimum was more than sufficient to punish them for their crimes and deter others. Jonathan Zucker, who represented Taylor, asked Okun not to give his client what prosecutors acknowledged was an effective life sentence.
“He is going to spend all of his 20s in prison. He is going to spend all of his 30s in prison. He is going to spend all of his 40s in prison. He is most likely going to spend all of his 50s in prison. If the court is lenient, he might get out when he is 59 or sometime in his 60s," Zucker said. "And I guess the question for the court and the public is: How much is enough?”
Okun, a 2013 nominee of President Barack Obama, spoke only briefly Friday — calling the crimes in the case "truly heinous" and acknowledging no matter what sentence he ordered it would not return Makiyah to her family.
“I know that nothing I do here today can fully make up for that loss and that pain," Okun said. "And for that I am sorry.”
Before the sentence was delivered Friday, several members of Makiyah's family spoke to Okun and the defendants. Speaking at times through tears, Makiyah's mother, Donneta Wilson, talked about the shooting, which killed Makiyah and injured one of her siblings, had forever impacted her family.
"I have a survivor and I have a baby in heaven," Wilson said. "This was the worst day of my life."
Wilson described her daughter as an "angel on Earth" who loved people. She described her family's pain as unbearable, and said she and her children struggle with survivor's guilt.
"I don't know if you can imagine lifting your child's shirt up and her whole chest is gone," she said.
Makiyah's grandmother, Pandora Wilson, also spoke during the hearing. She said no amount of prison time would be sufficient for her.
“As for me, your honor, I wish you would throw them in the fiery pits of hell and shut the door. And let them burn. And let them become a pile of ashes," Pandora Wilson said. "Because that’s what they left me with. Ashes.”
At trial, prosecutors said 10-year-old Makiyah was walking back from an ice cream truck when she was hit by gunfire near her Northeast home on July 16, 2018.
Makiyah's mother was inside when her daughter was shot. When she opened the door, her daughter and four others wounded in the shooting — including one of Makiyah's older siblings — all "tumbled into her home in a bloody heap," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Merikas told jurors during her opening statement at trial earlier this year. Makiyah's big sister Nyjhay, who was also shot, picked her up and saw "the gaping hole in her chest."
"She wouldn't let go of her hand, even as they started chest compression," the prosecutor told jurors. "Makiyah Wilson was shot in the heart and died on her mother's doorstep!"
Police blame a long-running Clay Terrace neighborhood beef for the violence, which saw 50 shots fired over 20 seconds. A brief surveillance video of the barrage of gunfire was shown during trial. In the video, the courtroom saw four four gunmen climbing out of a black car and opening fire, with a getaway driver and six co-conspirators also present.
Prosecutors say the defendants were members of the Wellington Park Gang — itself, they say, an affiliate of the larger "Glizzy Murder Crew." During trial, Zucker argued Mikayah's sister Nyjhay never mentioned the gang.
During closing arguments in May, prosecutors urged the jurors to follow the guns, the texts, and the social media, to prove beyond any reasonable doubt the six men are guilty of conspiracy and first degree premeditated murder while armed.