Milwaukee man gets 50 years in slaying of 13-month-old boy (UPDATE)

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — A judge sentenced a Milwaukee man to 50 years in prison Thursday in the killing of a 13-month-old boy who died when authorities say the wrong house was shot up during a dispute between drug dealers.

Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner said the death of Bill Thao “cries out for punishment” as he handed down the sentence against Darmequaye Cohill, 22, who was convicted in December of being a party to both first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety. The judge called the slaying “outrageous and evil,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Wagner accepted the state’s recommended sentence of 40 years for the homicide plus 10 years for the lesser charge, followed by 25 years of extended supervision.

“Why should there be hope for yourself?” Wagner asked. “There shouldn’t be.”

Cohill interrupted the judge: “Because I didn’t do it.”

Bill was playing at a relative’s house on Dec. 27, 2014, when three gunmen in the street opened fire. A barrage of 41 bullets hit the home, and one struck and killed the child.

“A young, innocent child playing Legos with his family,” Wagner said, “a child who has a lot of nevers.”

After the hearing, Bill’s father, Somboon Thao, tearfully said how much he misses his son and how his life has been turned upside down. He said Cohill deserved the sentence.

“We have to work hard, we have to go to school. We have to do the best thing today for tomorrow. Not what he did, the bad thing,” Thao said.

According to trial testimony, Cohill’s girlfriend had posted his cellphone number on social media, and another man, Kwesen Sanders, who knew Cohill was a heroin dealer, had the number transferred to his own phone so he would get calls from Cohill’s customers. Cohill later got one of them to lead him back to Sanders.

After a first attempt to shoot Sanders outside his mother’s house failed, Cohill and others returned the next night and mistakenly shot up the Thao’s house next door.