Trials & Sentencings for October, 2025

[Niner]

For the week of Wednesday, Oct. 1st thru Friday, Oct. 3rd:

Thursday, Oct. 2nd:
*Sentencing Hearing (@ 8:30am ET) – MI - Kyrie Karter Muhammad Starks (23 mos.) (June 13, 2022, killed by Babysitter, threw boy against wall, shook him, told mom he ingested soap, Roseville) - *Kimora Launmei Hodges (21/now 24) arrested (6/14/22) & originally charged (6/13/22) & arraigned (6/23/22) with 1st degree child abuse has now been upgraded & arraigned (1/10/23) & charged (1/10/23) to felony murder & 1st degree child abuse. Plead not guilty. $250K Cash or Surety bond. Bod was revoked on 7/31/25. Macomb County's 39th District Court-Roseville/Bound over to Circuit Court 16th District Macomb County
Trial began on 7/22/25. State & defense rested their cases on 7/30/25. Jury received case on 7/31/25 to start deliberations. Deliberated for about 2 hours & found Hodges GUILTY on both charges.
Judge Diane M. Druzinski presiding. Prosecutor Lozen. Defense attorney Mariell R. Lehman.
Case & court info from 6/23/22 thru 7/17/25 & Jury Selection Days 1-2 (7/22-23/25) & Trial Days 1-6 (7/23-31/25) reference post #82 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...gested-soap-13-june-2022-arrest.628360/page-5
7/31/25 Wednesday, Trial Day 6: Jury began deliberations at 9:42am & returned with a verdict at 11:48am. Defendant found GUILTY on Court 1-Child Abuse in the 1st degree & Count 2-Homicide-Felony murder. Sentencing hearing on 10/2/25 @ 8:30am.

*Trial set to begin (all charges) (@ 8:30am CT) - TX - An Amber Alert was put out (10/17/22) after a 911 call for Nicholas Menina, 7, Zayden Menina, 10, Jovion Menina & Javier Menina, both 12, Jarod Menina, 14. Their older brother, 18-year-old Jamerian Robinson was also missing. Also assaulted 16 year old twins, girl & boy (no names given) who triggered the Amber Alert on Monday night 10/17/22. The children were last seen at around 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 10/18/22 in the 8700 block of Marina Alto Lane in Cypress, a suburb of Houston. Found late on Tuesday, 10/18/22 with relatives near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Twins say they were forced to drink bleach, burned & beaten with curtain rods & kept handcuffed) - *Zaikiya Titilayo Duncan (40/now 43) "mom" arrested (10/18/22 in Baton Rouge, LA), charged (10/18/22) & indicted (12/19/22) & re-indicted (6/27/25) with 2 counts of assault on family/household member & 4 counts of aggravated assault on family member/household. Held without bond in Louisiana awaiting extradition to Texas. Booked into Harris County jail on 10/29/22. Bond: $1M ea. for assault & $1.25M ea. for aggravated assault. Total bond is $4.5M. Harris County #179143101010-3 & 1794143201010-3 (aggravated assault) PLUS! *Charged (10/17/23) with 2 counts of injury child under 15 & Level F3 injury to child. Harris County
Trial set to begin on 10/2/25.
Judge David Daniel Simons presiding. Defense attorneys Thomas B. Dupont II & Jacob Julio Vela.
Court info from 10/18/22 thru 7/24/25 reference post #166 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...-stepfather-cypress-18-oct-2022.640464/page-9
8/7/25 Docket updates: Motions to seal motion. Order-Seal Granted. Pretrial on 9/4/25 was reset upon defense request. Next pretrial conference hearing on 9/23/25 @ 8:30am.
9/22/25 Docket update: Defense motion Trns Pr Motion filed. 9/23/25 Docket updates: Order: Trnss Motions, Notices & filings. Judge Daniel Wayne Simons presiding. Attorney Thomas B. Dupont appointed from AAT court. Next jury trial on 10/2/25 @ 8:30am. 9/26/25 Docket update: Attorey fee voucher Ordered in the amount of $750.
*Jova Terrell (27/now 30) aka YGB Joker (rapper name) (BF) – Plea hearing on 4/8/24 plead guilty to a lesser charge-child endangerment & sentenced to 18 months in State jail.

 

[Niner]

Update for a 2018 case!

*Sentencing Hearing – Canada – Davion (5 yrs old) (disappeared July 19, 2018, Bramptom, found unconscious, stable but critical condition in medical induced coma; 7/20 in stable condition; 7/29/18 came out of induced coma, awake, alert & interactive) – *Dyon Courtney Smart (28/now 35) charged (7/19/18) with attempted murder, aggravated assault, failing to comply with recognizance & breach of a probation order. Back in custody.
Was out on bail for a Sept, 2017 charge of attempted murder, aggravated assault & mischief for allegedly stabbing a 44 year old man. Had bail hearing 7/20/18, judge issues that DS be remanded back into custody.
Next hearing 7/25/18.
9/30/25 Update: Smart has been sentenced to life in prison for attempting to murder a five-year-old boy through a “barbarous” & “relentless” beating as revenge for the child’s mother rejecting him. Furious that his ex-girlfriend rebuffed his advances & no longer wanted him living in her basement, Dyon Smart woke her young son in the middle of the night on July 19, 2018, preying on the child’s trust for a man he once saw as his “stepdad.” Although convicted in 2022, Smart’s sentencing was delayed several years as defence counsel was unavailable due to his schedule & health leave, and there was a need to deal with issues raised by the Crown’s request for a psychiatric assessment, for which Smart refused to be interviewed. The Crown presented the court with several sentencing options, chiefly that Smart be declared a dangerous offender & receive an indeterminate prison sentence; if the court disagreed, then the Crown asked for a life sentence. The defence asked for a 16- to 18-year sentence; with credit for time served in custody since his arrest & for harsh jail conditions, the defence argued that Smart would have had just over four years left to serve. Stribopoulos declined to declare Smart a dangerous offender. While noting the attack involved “extreme brutality,” he deferred to Klassen’s opinion that nothing about the circumstances of the incident would suggest that Smart would be unmanageable in the future. But in handing down the life sentence, he noted that Smart’s chance at parole is nonetheless “extraordinarily unlikely” until he can show the parole board that he has completed a “considerable amount of programming” to address his violent behaviour. Smart will have no guarantee of parole for the rest of his life; a dangerous offender designation would not have eliminated the possibility of parole.