The Michigan teen who murdered his half-sister was sentenced to 40 to 100 years in prison, as the slain girl’s mother tore into him during her anguishing statement to the court Monday. “I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there that day to protect you,” Stacey Hilton tearfully told the court, speaking directly to her daughter, McKenna.
McKenna was 18 when she was strangled by her half-brother, Savon Schmus, on Aug. 18, 2016. Schmus, who was then 16, admitted to the killing as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. “You were my only baby and you’re always going to be my only baby and I love you very much,” Hilton said. Wiping tears from her eyes, Hilton then turned her attention to her daughter’s killer. “Savon, I hate you,” Hilton said. “I will never forgive you. McKenna did nothing to you to deserve what you did to her.”
A motive for the killing is not known. McKenna and Savon, who shared a father, became close as they grew older and Hilton felt he was part of their family, she previously told InsideEdition.com. “McKenna considered you to be her brother,” she said in Kent County Court. “And I remember her saying that she loved the kid, referring to you. She drove you to make sure you got to driver’s training, she let you stay in her room; we went on vacations together. I don’t know what possessed you to think that you had the right to take her life the way that you did.” Savon held his head down but showed no obvious emotion as three people, including Hilton, made victim impact statements to the court.
“I hope that when you go to prison, you get exactly what you deserve,” Hilton said. “I hope that when you come out of prison, it’s not on your two feet; I hope it’s in a body bag… what he did was so heinous, it was premeditated, it was so hateful, so evil. He doesn’t deserve a second chance. McKenna doesn’t get one, we don’t get one; he doesn’t deserve one.”
Savon and McKenna’s father, David Schmus, reportedly addressed the court briefly, reading a verse from the Bible about the endurance of love. Savon’s attorney told Judge George Quist that while he would make no excuses for his client, Savon was “truly remorseful.” He also asked that Quist take Savon’s age and lack of criminal record into consideration, to which Hilton could be seen shaking her head. But Quist handed down the harshest sentence he could give under the guidelines of the plea agreement. “I have never seen so many letters from family and friends of a victim of a crime,” Quist said before ordering Savon to prison for 40 to 100 years.
“After dealing with several murders and sexual assaults on children, this is the most horrific crime the court has handled,” Quist said. David Schmus wept as his son was sentenced, according to WOODTV.com. But the sentencing was welcomed by Hilton, who wrote on Facebook: “The best we could have hoped for!!”
Source: News agencies
