Her family remembered 11-year-old Takiya Holmes on Tuesday for her vibrant spirit, her selflessness and her great potential — all stolen when she was fatally struck by a stray bullet nearly seven years ago.
“My daughter is gone from a bullet that wasn’t even meant for her … because someone made a choice to fire a weapon,” her mother, Naikeeia Williams, lamented at the sentencing hearing for Antwan Jones, who was convicted in November of firing the fatal shot.
“She’s just gone, and there’s nothing I can do to bring her back,” Williams said.
Judge Michael Clancy sentenced Jones to 71 years in prison — 45 for Takiya’s murder and 26 for the attempted murder of three of the girl’s family members who were with her when she was struck.
Jones, 26, fired “indiscriminately, not once, not twice, but 12 times,” Clancy said in his ruling, counting out each shot to drive home the number of rounds fired.
Jones, a member of the Black Disciples street gang, opened fire with a handgun equipped with an extended magazine to run off a group of men selling marijuana on a corner near the Parkway Gardens housing development on Feb. 11, 2017, Cook County prosecutors said at the trial.
Takiya was sitting in her family’s minivan when she was struck in her head by one of those bullets. She died days later after being taken off life support.
She was one of several children in Chicago who were victims of gun violence that February.
In death, the family said, Takiya had saved seven or eight others through organ donations, including a kidney to Takiya’s aunt.
Takiya’s cousin, the anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes, said Tuesday he hoped Jones’ lengthy sentence would stop others from picking up a gun.
No family members or friends of Jones appeared to attend the hearing, and his attorney submitted a single letter of support from a pastor for the judge to consider.
Takiya’s family noted Jones’ lack of support.
“When the jury brought the verdict back … no one was out there sitting for his behalf,” Takiya’s grandmother, Patsy Holmes, recalled in her victim impact statement.
Patsy Holmes said that was in contrast to Takiya, whose family had pitched in to pick her up from school and make sure she got to basketball practice.
“All I can say is that 11 years wasn’t enough,” her grandmother said
