Inset: William Deandre-Kashawn Smith in court (WLNS). Background: The area near where Smith killed the mother of his children in Vandercook Lake, Mich. (Google Maps).
A Michigan man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing the mother of his children while some were asleep right next to her.
In April, William Deandre-Kashawn Smith, 36, was convicted by a Jackson County jury on one count of premeditated murder in the first degree over the January 2024 death of 31-year-old Shi’Ana Gittens.
On Thursday, Jackson County Circuit Judge John McBain sentenced the defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole and took the opportunity to harshly upbraid the condemned man.
“You shot her in the head with a .28 caliber round while your daughter was in this bed with her,” McBain said, addressing Smith directly, according to a courtroom report by MLive. “You just executed her in the presence of your two kids.”
The judge also made sure the killer knew he would die in prison.
“You never have to worry about what a parole board will do with you because, all things being equal, you’re going to go into the front of the Jackson prison and they’re gonna take you out in a black bag at some point when you die,” McBain added.
The underlying incident took place inside a residence on East McDevitt Avenue in Vandercook Lake – a census-designated place that is located roughly 40 miles due west of Ann Arbor.
On the night in question, Smith sneaked into the house and shot Gittens in the right side of her head – one time – near her right ear, prosecutors explained. The bullet exited through the woman’s neck.
One of the couple’s four children, a 9-year-old boy, found his mother lying on the floor next to her bed and frantically called his father, pleading with him to come home. But Smith ignored the child.
“His son calls him in the middle of the night,” Jackson County Prosecutor Kelsey Guernsey told the jury, MLive previously reported. “He’s terrified. He is sobbing. He begs him for help and he (Smith) does nothing. That is the monster that those kids lived with.”
Later, the victim was also discovered by the couple’s 6-year-old, according to a courtroom report by Lansing-based CBS affiliate WLNS.
Jurors were shown a video, bolstered by cellphone data, of Smith waiting outside the residence that night. In fact, the jury was made to sit through a full 22-minute-long piece of surveillance footage that showed the moment Smith drove up to when he finally went inside.
“Painstakingly, you sat here all for 22 minutes,” Guernsey said. “I didn’t speed it up. I wanted everybody to think about how long he sat there. That’s how long he had to think about what he was going to do.”
Eventually, the 9-year-old got hold of his grandmother – Smith’s own mother – who rushed to the house and called 911.
Smith was arrested roughly five miles northwest.
Jurors learned the couple’s fourth child had been born just weeks before the shooting – and that Gittens was still recovering from a cesarean section when she was murdered.
The defense, for its part, argued a severe lack of evidence.
“We know that there’s no physical evidence that links him to that crime,” Smith’s attorney said. “There’s no eyewitnesses. They found a shell casing. There’s no DNA on the shell. The detective went through all the text messages, all the phones, all the information and there was no indication he ever admitted to doing this or he was ever involved in this.”
In the end, however, the jury sided with the state.
During his sentencing hearing, the defendant maintained his innocence.
“I love her and I love my kids,” Smith told the court. “I don’t understand how I’m in the situation am in. I feel set up.”
During an impact statement, the victim’s sister addressed Smith directly.
“You created a living nightmare for my niece and especially my nephew,” she said. “I pray every night you sleep, you never rest. I pray your soul burns in hell for eternity after you die.”
The prosecutor also addressed Smith.
“This court knows it takes a special kind of evil to walk into a bedroom and shoot the mother of your children point-blank in the head and leave your children there to find her the next morning,” Guernsey said.
