Two men get 15 years to life in gang-related murder
Two men were sentenced to decades in prison Tuesday for killing a man in southwest Bakersfield after their trial lasted nearly two months and took jurors about two weeks to deliberate.
Kenton McDaniel, 24, and Tymere Ross, 24, were each sentenced to 15 years to life for second-degree murder in the shooting death of Hardeep Singh, 32, who died the day after Thanksgiving 2017. Kern County Superior Court Judge Judith K. Dulcich also tacked on 10-year and 25-year gun enhancements for Ross and McDaniel, respectively.
“The murder convictions were appropriate,” Deputy District Attorney John Allen, who prosecuted the case, said after the hearing. “It’s obviously a tragic situation where a man lost his life. The defendants need to be held accountable.”
Singh — nicknamed “Lovely” by his family — made the “difficult and treacherous decision” to emigrate from India to the United States and worked many different jobs to make a living here, according to a letter read by a victims advocate during the sentencing hearing. His life was getting better when he was senselessly and violently killed, the letter added.
Stricken by grief, Singh’s mother passed away the day after Singh died. The family wrote she had lost purpose in life and couldn’t continue without her son, who was the main breadwinner in the family. Singh’s father died from acute liver failure last year before the court case began, the letter said.
“There was no closure for them,” the victims advocate read in the letter.
McDaniel, Ross, Tinamarie Hawthorne and another teenager arrived at the Cambridge Village Apartments after Singh requested prostitution services from Hawthorne, Allen said during closing arguments presented in November. One of them confronted Singh when the group got to his residence, and Singh was shot in the face.
A theory by police that Hawthorne brought the other teens with her to rob Singh while she distracted him was wrong, defense attorneys argued during trial.
Charges of first-degree murder and participating in a street gang were dismissed for Hawthorne after prosecutors offered her a plea agreement in exchange for her honest testimony. She pleaded no contest to an accessory allegation and was sentenced to probation and time she’d already served.
Defense attorney Elliot Magnus argued there’s no evidence connecting his client, McDaniel, to the gun used in this case. DNA evidence showed the teenager had the gun, Magnus added.
But Dulcich said she denied his request to remove the enhancement because evidence showed McDaniel pointed a gun at the driver after the incident and told that person to start going.
It’s unclear what charges, if any, the teenager faced in this incident.
Defense attorney Monica Bermudez noted during the hearing that Ross, her client, hadn’t been arrested before he started dating Hawthorne, which was deemed an unhealthy relationship because Hawthorne was in her 30s dating an 18-year-old. Ross is already planning to use his time in prison to finish high school and get a degree, she added.
Dulcich noted Ross was a key component in the incident, but there’s no indication he put his hands on the gun or knew about it. That’s why she said she didn’t sentence him to the complete 25 years called for by a gun enhancement.
Ross and McDaniel were acquitted of conspiracy and attempted robbery and attempted burglary. They were found guilty of participating in a street gang.
The family of Singh, the victim, wrote in the letter he was a friend who would show up at 2 a.m. bearing gifts when someone needed him.
A judge didn’t need to mete out an “eye for eye” type justice — that doesn’t bring Singh back, the letter said.
It would have been better if Singh’s family heard the defendants’ names in another context, Singh’s family wrote.
Ross could have funneled his success on the basketball court into a career. McDaniel could have experienced “love and connection” by eventually settling down with a wife to have children, the letter said.
Instead, overwhelming red rage overtook Ross and McDaniel that Black Friday night almost six years ago and snatched away all these opportunities, the letter said.