A 21-year-old man in Ohio has been sentenced to 64 years to life in prison after a night of gunfire over a social media post claimed the life of a 12-year-old girl as she slept. Isabella Carlos, known to her family as Bella, was a seventh grader. Her home was not even the target.
Javen Conner was sentenced on Thursday for her murder. His accomplice, Antawan Benson, had already been given a 67-year prison sentence on December 22.
A confrontation over a post
The trouble began on August 22, 2024, in Trotwood. Benson and Conner confronted a woman sitting in her car over a social media post that involved a cousin of theirs.
What began as an argument did not end there. At about 12:30 a.m. on August 23, the two men went on a shooting spree in Dayton, firing an AK-47 and an AR-15 into three homes.
Isabella was asleep in her bed when she was hit. First responders pronounced her dead at the scene. Officers later confirmed that her house was not the one the men had meant to hit.
A family left with nothing to do
Her father, Michael Nooks, told the Dayton Daily News that he tried to bring her back. "I tried to resuscitate her, but I couldn’t. As a dad, you’re supposed to be able to protect your kids, but I couldn’t in that situation," he said.
Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. called the crime "cowardly" and "senseless." He said a young girl with her whole future ahead of her had been "snuffed out" while asleep in her own bed.
What the judge wanted them to know
Judge Gerald Parker used the sentencing hearing to say that Isabella probably did not die instantly. He wanted the men to understand that. "It’s just gut-wrenching to try to comprehend the last few moments of Bella’s life. The testimony was that she actually had moved from where she was sleeping," he said.
He added that she was found half on the bed and half off it. "Which means she suffered, she struggled, whether it was for a couple of minutes. I hope you understand that," he told them.
The judge also pointed to what the pair did afterwards. They posted photos on Facebook of the empty clips from their weapons, which he described as a "sense of false bravado."
A future that never came
Isabella’s aunt, Donnetta Dewberry, spoke in court about the hole left in the family. She said her niece had been lying there sleeping, getting ready for school the next day. "We will never get to [see] Bella go to prom, her first love, her first date, anything," she said.
She also spoke directly to the man who took her niece’s life. "You and your brother did somethin’ that will never be able to be taken back," she said.
With both men now sentenced, the legal case is largely at its end. For Isabella’s family, the loss of a girl who had a whole life still to come remains.
Image credit: Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office
Source: Daily Express US
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