Man who refused to testify in shooting of child sobs at sentencing

He apologizes to boy’s mother, says he feared for his family.

Johnathan CLEVELAND —

Smith broke down and sobbed at his sentencing Wednesday as he told a judge why he didn’t hold up his end of a plea bargain and testify in the trial of a man accused of shooting a 4-yearold boy.

Smith apologized to the child’s mother, who said her son had to have two brain surgeries and requires almost around-the-clock care more than a year after the shooting.

“I know I should have thought about her and her kids,” Smith, 22, eeked out after standing silently for more than a minute. “But I was thinking about my family and what would happen to them if I got up on the stand and said what happened.

The confession was a marked turn from just minutes earlier when at the start of the hearing Smith asked Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Sherrie Miday to undo his plea to felonious assault and let him go to trial on attempted murder and other charges tied to the August 2017 shooting on Cleveland’s Memorial Shoreway near Dead Man’s Curve.

Miday refused to reverse the plea and imposed a 20-year sentence, two less than the maximum sentence. The sentence sent Smith’s mother and sister into tears as they sat in the back of the courtroom. His brother was removed from the courtroom after he stood up, threw his hands in the air and asked why Miday did not allow Smith’s family to speak.

Smith was on probation for his role in another shooting when he was arrested in connection with this case.

The shooting happened shortly after the woman honked at Edwards and Smith as they sat in a white sedan that was blocking the street in Ohio City’s Lakeview Terrace housing complex, authorities said. The car followed the woman’s car onto the highway, and she told police that two men in the car opened fire on her.

One of the bullets pierced the back passenger window of the woman’s car and struck her 4-year-old son in the head. The boy was strapped into a booster seat.

The shattered glass also injured the woman’s 7-yearold daughter.

“As a mother, you’re supposed to protect your children,” the woman said as she sobbed in court Thursday. “That night, I had no control.”

Investigators immediately identified Smith as the shooter. Smith first denied being involved in a statement to police. He eventually admitted to being in the car but said Edwards was both the driver and the shooter.

Smith’s plea deal came in June. Prosecutors agreed to drop attempted murder charge, and Smith agreed to testify against Leon Edwards, his former childhood friend who Smith immediately pinned the shooting on.

“If I could have stopped him, I would have,” Smith sobbed in court Wednesday. “I feel like the wrong person is getting convicted in this crime.”

Smith took the stand last week and refused to testify in Edwards’s trial. The move proved a death knell in the state’s case against Edwards, and a jury found him not guilty after less than two hours of deliberations on Friday. Edwards walked out of jail the next morning.

The boy’s mother sobbed as she talked about her son’s struggle to recover from the shooting.

“One got off, but one’s still here,” she said, turning to Smith. “I’m not going to dwell on that.”