Who is Christopher Stokes? Wisconsin man gets 205 years in jail for shooting 5 family members
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: Christopher Stokes, 44, is sentenced to 205 years in prison for shooting dead five members of his family. Stokes pleaded guilty to the 'horrific crime' he committed in April of last year. He was sentenced on Tuesday, July 27. The incident in question took place on April 27, 2020.
Prior to his sentencing, Stokes spoke to the court and said, "I don't know what in the world came over me. I woke up and just had blood on my mind." He continued, "Something just wasn't going right. I did the ultimate sin… I deserve to be locked up. I deserve everything I get. I'm not asking for leniency or anything like that. No one in the world should have done what I did." In a similar incident, 33-year-old Dean Lowe was sentenced to life in prison after dismembering his girlfriend and making a necklace with her teeth in February of last year.
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Stokes was sentenced to 40 years of jail time for each of the five counts of first-degree homicide and an additional five years for possession of a firearm by a felon. He was then given 105 years of extended supervision. Stokes' attorney had requested 35 years in prison, claiming he had sought out mental health treatment a month before the incident, but in-person sessions were canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, prosecutors stated it was important Stokes never be released from prison, because of his unpredictable nature.
What happened on April 27, 2020?
On the morning of April 27, 2020, Stokes shot his on-off girlfriend Teresa Thomas, 41, and her two children, Tiera Agee, 16, and Demetrius Thomas, 14. Stokes also killed his own son, Marcus Stokes, 19, and another relative, Lakeitha Stokes, 17. Only his 3-year-old grandchild was spared who witnessed the shootings and asked Stokes to not hurt him, according to the prosecutors. After the massacre, Stokes called 911 and allegedly said that several members of his family were shot and the "gun was still upstairs with the bodies".
Stokes called 911 again and confessed to killing his family. When police arrived at the scene, they found Stokes sitting on the steps. In response to an officer's question, if he had heard any shots', he said, "Yeah, I didn't hear them, I did them." Police then discovered a camouflaged 12-gauge shotgun in one of the bedrooms with 12 spent shotgun shells throughout the house.
During the court hearing on Tuesday, July 27, Stokes' nephew Rosemary Turner said, "Losing those many people at one time, including him, hate is a bad word, but we really do hate him for that. We still love him because he's our uncle, but can we forgive him for what he did? No, we can't. Do we understand it? No, we don't. It's like, we just got to take it a day at a time."