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Man Who Killed 7-Year-Old and Her Dad in CWE Sentenced to Just 10 Years | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

October 17, 2023

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click to enlarge COURTESY ST. LOUIS POLICE Javonn Nettles pleaded guilty to killing Dmyah Fleming, 7, and her dad Darrion Rankin-Fleming.

Anger coursed through the courtroom this morning in St. Louis as Javon Nettles pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old and her father in the Central West End, but was sentenced to only 10 years in prison.

“I feel like I’m not getting justice,” said Janice Johns, the mother of Dmyah Fleming, the girl killed.

Even the judge himself said that the events in the courtroom made him question what justice is.

This morning’s plea hearing stems from the killing of Fleming and her father, Darrion Rankin-Fleming, shot to death near Saint Louis University in January 2021. The killing shocked the Central West End and Midtown neighborhoods as well as the city as a whole.

Both Nettles and his co-defendant Andre Anderson were arrested in May 2021, but the case has languished in the court system in the years since. Earlier this year it became entangled with the dysfunction of the Circuit Attorney’s Office.

Nettles’ attorney Terry Niehoff previously blasted prosecutors for failing to hand over key evidence in the case, including information related to search warrants, Facebook chat logs and phone records.

However, Niehoff tells the RFT that prosecutors themselves likely never had the evidence — making it impossible to turn it over to him.

“The investigation by police was terrible,” Niehoff says. “And then they weren’t turning things over to prosecutors because this was during the Kim Gardner era. Which caused more problems.”

If police aren’t handing evidence over, it’s the prosecutor’s job to go get it, Niehoff adds.

He says that the 10-year plea was made possible because the state’s case was so riddled with problems there was a decent chance Nettles would have won an acquittal if it had gone to trial. He notes that father and daughter were killed in a stolen car, in which police also found a gun, drugs and tens of thousands of dollars.

More than two and a half years after the slaying, Niehoff says he still doesn’t have all the evidence he’d need to defend his client, and he suspects prosecutors don’t have all the evidence either. That’s even though, up until last week, the matter was scheduled to go to trial later this month.

The case was handled by a number of prosecutors before being assigned to Mary Pat Carl, who joined the office earlier this year after Gabe Gore was appointed circuit attorney. Formerly the office’s lead homicide prosecutor under Jennifer Joyce before twice running for the job herself, and losing to Gardner, Carl saw her return greeted with high hopes by law-and-order types.

Carl spoke briefly in court, saying that sometimes “difficult decisions need to be made” and that the value of lives lost was not reflected in the 10-year sentence, which Judge Mike Noble — himself famously a critic of Gardner — grudgingly accepted in court.
click to enlarge LUIMIL NEGRON A memorial to Dmyah Fleming, and her father, Darrion Rankin-Fleming, has been maintained by family and friends for more than two years.

The extent to which the 10-year sentence upset the victims’ family can’t be overstated.

Johns said through tears that Nettles’ sentence was longer than her daughter’s entire life before being killed.

“It is torture,” she said. “I wake up everyday confused at the world.”

She added, “Ten years is not enough for me.”

Rankin-Fleming’s mother spoke in court prior to Nettle’s sentencing. “The justice system failed my family,” she said.

Niehoff tells the RFT that Nettles will receive credit for the time he’s spent in the City Justice Center as the case meandered through court. He’ll serve 85 percent of the remaining balance, meaning that he’ll be a free man in about six years.

For Dmyah Fleming’s mother, the resolution seems unfathomable.

“Winter is my depression time,” said Johns. “It gets cold. My baby died in the cold.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

12 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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