» Intimidation trial:
Two women who say they acted under the control of a Milwaukee man convicted of killing two people and plotting to kill a third are sentenced to prison for their roles in those crimes.
Two women who say they acted under the control of a Milwaukee man convicted of killing two people and plotting to kill a third were sentenced to prison Tuesday for their roles in those crimes.
Antonio Smith, 35, was convicted last week of killing Eddie Powe and a witness to Powe’s homicide, 17-year-old Breanna Eskridge, in July 2015. He pleaded guilty to those murders as well as a plot to kill another witness from behind bars.
Smith’s mid-trial plea decision came a day before his former girlfriend, Shantrell Lyons, was set to testify against him and one day after his co-defendant in the killing of Eskridge, Wynette McClelland, testified against him.
On Tuesday, McClelland, 34, was sentenced to 12 years of prison and eight years of extended supervision. Lyons, 22, received 15 years behind bars and 10 years of extended supervision. Neither McClelland nor Lyons had much, if any, criminal history.
“It’s obvious to me … that Antonio Smith was exceptionally good at getting women to do what he wanted,” said Assistant District Attorney Karl Hayes, who prosecuted the sprawling case.
“When you choose to be on the side of killers and murderers, there is a price to be paid.”
He said the women played key roles in Smith’s crimes: McClelland dropping Eskridge off, knowing Smith was waiting to ambush her with a gun, and Lyons running a drug trafficking operation and conspiring to kill a witness.
The idea that a person could commit a homicide then eliminate the witnesses is a “knife to the heart of the criminal justice system” and “paralyzes our ability to prosecute crime and have justice for the victims,” Hayes said.
In their plot to kill the witness, Lyons and the co-defendants turned the courthouse complex “into their hunting ground,” he said.
Milwaukee Circuit Judge Joseph Donald said he didn’t doubt that Smith, who will be sentenced in April, was at the center of the bizarre, bloody tale of murder, witness intimidation and heroin dealing.
“But for Antonio Smith to conduct this operation, he needed dutiful and responsive lieutenants,” Donald said in sentencing Lyons, who gave birth to Smith’s child in jail last year. “Much has been made about the power that he exerted over you and many others. The only thing I can say is that power, for whatever reason, you conceded that to Mr. Smith.”
Breanna’s aunts and twin sister spoke during McClelland’s sentencing and said she was wrong for ever befriending Breanna and her twin. McClelland testified last week that she was “mentoring” the girls.
“My niece was full of life,” said aunt Rosaline Jackson. “As an adult, you were saying you wanted to help them and then you played a major part in her being murdered, executed, shot five times in the face. I don’t hate you, but I hate what you did.”
McClelland told Donald what she did was wrong but she was victimized by Smith, who vowed to kill her if she talked to police.
“She was like a little sister to me. I didn’t want anything to happen to her. But Antonio threatened me every day,” she said.
Lyons said she took responsibility for mistakes she made and knew she needed to pay her debt, but asked for leniency.
“I need to change for my baby girl,” she said.
John Spivey, who witnessed the homicide of Powe and was then targeted because of it, said he had no sympathy for Lyons.
“For you to assist these guys, because you felt like you was queen of the earth, had drug sales, drug deals, that was ridiculous,” Spivey said. “…You felt as though you was above the law.”