Jury recommends sentences for men convicted in fatal Louisville bus stop shooting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Two men convicted on all charges in connection with the 2021 drive-by shooting that killed 16-year-old Tyree Smith at a Louisville bus stop were back in court Friday for sentencing recommendations.

Demaurion Moore and Mekhi Cable were offered deals for 35 years in prison with no parole, probation or shock probation.

Moore accepted the deal and will serve at least 30 years in prison. He will get credit for time served, and agreed to not apply for parole, request probation or shock probation. He will be formally sentenced Aug. 27.

Cable, meanwhile, did not accept the deal and instead left his fate up to the jury and the judge.

The jury recommended Cable serve a combined 60 years in prison on all charges. He will also be formally sentenced in August.

Moore and Cable were each convicted of murder, attempted murder, two counts of fourth-degree assault, three counts of wanton endangerment, receiving stolen property and possession of a handgun by a minor.

The two men were convicted of murdering Smith, an Eastern High School student, in a drive-by shooting on Sept. 22, 2021, at West Chestnut and Dr. W.J. Hodge streets. Moore and Cable were 15 at the time of the shooting.

Two other children, a 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, were also at the bus stop and survived after being shot. Police said Smith was not the intended target.

Throughout the trial, phone records, video surveillance, text messages and DNA evidence have all been brought up. But the defense argued that wasn't enough.

Both defense attorneys for Cable and Moore claimed there was no evidence of either defendants at the bus stop. No video of them driving the stolen Jeep used in the drive-by shooting, no video of them shooting guns at the bus stop and no video of them at the bus stop.

Despite this, prosecutors argued there was plenty of other evidence. That included video surveillance of Cable getting into the stolen Jeep before the time of the shooting and DNA from both Moore and Cable found on objects in the Jeep.

"DNA is like dirt," said Nick Boggs, Moore's attorney. "It gets moved around, especially when there are multiple mixes found."

Sherita Smith, Smith's mother, said she felt a sense of relief as the case moved forward, but after sitting through days of testimony about her son’s death, she said she is emotionally drained.

"Forgiveness… I believe that’s for God to do," Smith said. "I believe anybody can change, but I’m just not going to say that I forgive them."

She described the courtroom experience as overwhelming, and it has been difficult to hear repeated, graphic details about the moments leading up to her son being killed.

"I mean, nothing is going to bring him back," said Ryane Conroy, the Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney. "There's nothing about this that isn't a tragedy and that, you know, changes the fact that kids were standing at a bus stop and got shot. But it can't hurt to have a day where it feels like the people that did this to your kid are at least going to get punished for it."

Prosecution rests

Defense attorneys for the accused killers took time Wednesday to cross-question the lead detective in the case.

Det. Stephen Snider was the final witness called by prosecutors before they rested their case. Cable's attorney spent most of his questioning trying to remove Cable from the crime, and pinning it on Moore.

The prosecutor then showed the jury a photo of Moore and Cable together, where Cable had a gun in his hand. That photo was taken less than a month after the bus stop shooting and two days before Moore was arrested for murder.

Cable's attorney also claimed that while there's evidence of Cable getting into the Jeep, there's no footage of him getting out of the Jeep and no footage of him at the bus stop or firing a gun.

"Clearly, I don't have video of anyone in the Jeep at the time of the shooting, but we do have DNA evidence to show that individuals were in the Jeep that morning of the shooting and we know that that Jeep is directly connected to the shooting because of the spent casing that was located inside the Jeep which does directly tie the occupants of that Jeep to a shooting that was tied directly to the shooting of Tyree Smith and the other kids at the bus stop," Snider said.

Cable's attorneys also brought a witness to the stand, a Central High School teacher.

Prosecutors lay out evidence tying suspects to crime

Through video surveillance, phone records and DNA found in the Jeep, investigators connected both Cable and Moore to the case. Investigators also found shell casings from two different guns at the scene, with one matching shell casings found in the Jeep.

Prosecutors laid out more evidence Monday that led them to the suspects. They say a social media login led investigators to one of the suspects, and point to a stolen phone that tied them to the crime.

Investigators connected a phone Moore reportedly stole from someone about 11 days before the shooting to the crime because the number called Cable the morning of the shooting.

A detective who searched Cable's bedroom after the shooting also took the stand, showing the courtroom the significance of the items taken from his home.

Det. Bradley Beckham said they went to the home looking for guns, ammunition and clothing. The clothing they were looking for was what Cable was seen wearing in a surveillance photo of him walking into his apartment. Detectives found a 9mm handgun in Cable's mom's room, as well as ammunition. They also recovered four phones from Cable's room and collected the clothes he was wearing in the surveillance photo. They also recovered his Central High School backpack.

"In this case a firearm was used in the commission of the homicide, so we would naturally look for guns to see if we could find any guns that could link up to the one used at the scene," Beckham said.

Prosecutors asked why investigators were looking for particular clothing as part of the search warrant that was executed at Cable's home.

"It was to prove further the person on video was the person we were looking for," said Beckham.

Surveillance footage at Central High School shows Cable walking through the school the day of the shooting at 7:12 a.m. and getting on the bus at 2:24 p.m. He was not on the bus that morning.

An officer involved in Moore's arrest also testified Monday.

Sgt. Joshua Wire was with LMPD's Violent Crime Unit at the time of the shooting. He worked the day Moore was involved in a traffic stop.

Wire responded when the initial foot chase began and drove around the area looking for the suspect from the description that was that was given.

He directed officers where Moore was running to. His body cam footage from Oct. 13 shows him getting out of his car with his gun up.

Wire then found Moore and arrested him in an alley just south of Broadway. He initially said Moore was wearing teal shorts then changed it to a teal shirt.

Cable's defense attorney claims all the evidence points toward Moore, and not Cable. That includes Moore allegedly being connected to another shooting from later in 2021.

Moore's attorney claims there's no motive, and they never recovered any weapons to connect Moore to the shooting.

Focus shifts to cellphone data, DNA

Cellphone location data and DNA took center stage Friday, June 5, as prosecutors focused on how the defendants were connected to the case.

The prosecution said witnesses at the bus stop saw two Black males get out of a gray Jeep Cherokee, which was reported stolen the morning of the shooting, and start firing before getting back into the car and driving away.

The prosecution called a T-Mobile custodian of records to the stand Friday morning, who spoke about how the company can see the calls form their customers' phones, as well as the location.

After getting a warrant to check cellphone records, investigators found Cable's phone was pinged in the area of the bus stop shooting that morning. They also found a number that called Cable the morning of the shooting, and connected it to a stolen phone that Moore had in his possession.

The phone Moore had was pinged at the Jamestown Apartments in St. Matthews, where the Jeep that was allegedly used in the shooting was found on fire. The jury was shown photos of that Jeep after it caught fire. The officer who found it took the stand Friday. At the time, he worked for the St. Matthews Police Department, and said he noticed the car had smoke filling up inside it and stopped.

"Got out, checked the car, made sure there was no people inside, there wasn't," officer Brad Harris said. "Another officer responded, we put the fire out with the fire extinguisher. They had taken the owners manual, put it in the driver's seat, set that on fire and then was trying to catch the rest of the car on fire."

Prosecutors asked more questions about DNA that was found in the Jeep. There was a key fob and a Fanta bottle inside the vehicle that was found in an apartment complex on fire. Moore's DNA was found on the key fob, and DNA from both Moore and Cable was found on the bottle.

One of the detectives who took evidence from the Jeep walked the jury through the process when she was notified the stolen car was found.

"When that occurs, what we do in the Homicide Unit is we will draft a search warrant for that vehicle so we can then process it with our Crime Scene Unit to document any evidence," LMPD Det. Abigail Christman said.

Smith's family testifies

The trial started with jury selection on Monday, June 1, and opening statements were held Tuesday, June 2, with the first witnesses being called to the stand.

Smith's mother was one of the first witnesses called to the stand.

"He said 'Mama, I'm shot, get here,' and so that was the first thing that replays over in my head all the time," Sherita Smith, said Tuesday. "And I'm like 'You shot?' and he said 'Somebody just came to the bus stop and shot up the bus stop, get here.'"

Smith's sister was the first to take the stand in court Wednesday, June 3. She was 14 when she and her brother walked to the bus stop that morning, as they always did. She said they were talking with friends when one of them told her to run. Once she heard the gunshots, she said she started running. When she went to turn around to find her brother, she told the jury she saw a large beige or gray car and gunfire coming from two different guns.

She said she only saw one person clearly, and the other person was on the other side of the car. Defense attorneys pressed her on that because the morning of the shooting, she only described one person. Because it was dark and wet the morning of the shooting and there were no street lights around the bus stop, she said she couldn't see the second person clearly, but she saw a second gun.

She described the first person as wearing all black, but couldn't remember if they were wearing masks. She said they were tall, but one was shorter than the other and she could tell they were both Black males. She said she wasn't in the right headspace to remember two people.

"I was thinking about my brother," she said. "That was the main thing I was worried about."

After the gunfire, Smith's sister said she tried to call her mom once she'd settled down and talked to someone in a window who said they'd call police. She ran towards her brother once her mom got there.

"I just couldn't even look at him, I just walked away and started throwing up," she said.

One student who was at the bus stop when the shooting happened testified that she heard more than 10 gunshots and started running, but it was too dark to see the car.