Michigan student who fatally stabbed classmate gets 27 years
A Michigan woman who fatally stabbed her highschool rival during a dispute over her ex-boyfriend was sentenced in the week to a minimum of 27 years in prison.
Tanaya Lewis, 19, pleaded no contest last month to first-degree premeditated murder within the September 2018 death of her 16-year-old classmate, Danyna Gibson, whom investigators said was stabbed with a table knife inside a classroom at Fitzgerald high school in Warren, the Detroit press reports.
“If could take it back, I would,” Lewis said during Wednesday’s hearing. “I accept the punishment … and that i know no amount of apologies will take it back … and I’m so, so sorry. I just hope someday, you’ll be [able to] forgive me.”
Lewis, who was then 17, said she still has nightmares about attacking Gibson – a straight-A student — with a kitchen knife that she delivered to school and stabbed her several times ahead of other students and an educator, the newspaper reports.
Lewis, who is going to be eligible for parole after 25 years thanks to credit for time served, could have received a maximum sentence of 40 to 60 years if a plea deal hadn’t been reached between her attorney and a judge. If she had been convicted as an adult, she would have received life without parole, the Macomb Daily reports.
Danyna’s aunt, Christina Ford, read a press release via video on behalf of the teen’s mother, who said there’s “really no words” to elucidate the pain caused by losing a toddler, especially in such a violent way.
“I mourn the loss of my baby every day,” the statement read. “Times doesn't heal. it's more of punishment because the more time that passes the more I realize I will be able to never see my baby again.”
Gibson’s family is unable to form a sense of or forgive Lewis for the slaying, Ford said.
“You took a life that was so beautiful,” her statement on behalf of Gibson’s family continued. “All I ask is that the Lord have mercy on your soul.”
Danyna wanted to become a computer engineer and was already learning the way to build robots, her father said.
“I feel like I was robbed by the system,” Preston Gibson said. “I feel like I was robbed by her mother and I feel like I was robbed by a teenager. Although my baby’s not here, I’m still paying child support, my baby’s dead and I don’t get no justice for it. this is how I feel. Everybody who played a part in her death … f— you all.”