Men, ages 18 and 20, sentenced to prison after deadly 2016 crime spree
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Zion Smith and Jaquisha Love were sentenced Wednesday for their roles in a violent overnight crime spree that killed one person and injured four others on the city’s east side in July 2016, the Marion County prosecutor said.
Zion Smith, 20, was sentenced 145 years in prison, and Jaquisha Love, 18, was sentenced to 130 years in prison. In March, Smith and Love were convicted on five counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, armed robbery and carrying a handgun without a license.
Shortly after midnight on July 19, 2016, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers dispatched to the 3200 block of Robson Street found Dayron Staten and another victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to their faces, necks and torso. Staten was pronounced dead at the scene, and the surviving victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Smith’s fingerprints were located on the rear door frame of the vehicle where Staten’s body was located.
As the investigation continued on Robson Street, a female approached officers and said she had been a victim of a robbery approximately an hour earlier. The female identified Zion and Love as the suspects. According to the female’s testimony, while walking near East 10th and North Gale streets, Smith approached her, pulled out a firearm and demanded her handgun. Smith also fired shots in her direction. The female later provided investigators with the shirt and jacket she was wearing at the time of the incident; both had bullet holes in them. Spent .45-caliber cartridge casings also were recovered from the scene of the robbery.
About 3:35 a.m. July 19, 2016, officers were called to a home in the 1400 block of Wallace Avenue to investigate a person shot. Upon arrival, officers located three people suffering from gunshot wounds inside the home. According to multiple witness statements, one of the victims answered the door when two suspects began firing shots and entered the home. One of the victims inside the home retrieved a firearm and returned fire in the direction of the shooter. The shooter then dropped a .45-caliber Smith and Wesson firearm and spent .45-caliber cartridge casings, which was recovered from the scene.
Later that morning, about 4:16 a.m., officers were called to the 4000 block of East 12th Street to investigate a person shot. Officers located Love and a man later identified as Smith suffering from a gunshot wound to the eye. Love falsely claimed at that time that she and Smith were near the 1000 block of Rural Street when they heard a gunshot and Smith was injured.
During the course of the investigations, an empty box of .45-caliber ammunition was located in a home that Smith had fled to after being shot. Smith’s fingerprint was located on the box of ammunition. Ballistic comparisons determined that the spent cartridges at all three crime scenes as well as bullet fragments recovered from Stanten’s autopsy were fired from the same firearm, which was dropped by Smith at the scene at in the 1400 block of Wallace Avenue.
“Zion Smith was 16 years old and Jaquisha Love was 18 when they committed three and a half hours of senseless violence,” Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said in a statement. “They will now spend the rest of their lives in the Department of Correction for their crimes as consequences for incomprehensible decisions they made that night. The diligent work of IMPD investigators to link the series of crimes was critical to the successful prosecution of the defendants.”
