Chicago Man Convicted of Murdering 14-Year-Old Sentenced to 105 Years: ‘She Was Discarded Like Garbage’

An Indiana judge sentenced a Chicago man to 105 years in prison Thursday after he was convicted of murdering a 14-year-old runaway girl in 2019, who was reportedly found shot dead in an Indiana alley and bound at the neck and wrists.

Before Lake County Judge Natalie Bokota sentenced Deonlashawn Simmons, 36, for the murder of 14-year-old Takaylah Tribbit, she called him predatory, dishonest, and antisocial, the Times of Northwest Indiana (NWI Times) reported.

“A jury convicted Simmons of murder in March and he subsequently admitted to firearm and habitual offender enhancements,” the Associated Press (AP) reported. “He has maintained his innocence and said Thursday he would appeal.”

Simmons and Tribbit met at a birthday party in Chicago, Illinois, on September 8, 2019, according to the NWI Times. Citing prosecutors, the Chicago Tribune reported that a woman arranged for the 14-year-old to go home with Simmons. The convicted murderer asserted he was attempting to assist the runaway teen, whose final Facebook location showed that at around 1:27 a.m. on September 14, 2019, she was in Chicago’s south side near the home of one of Simmons’s relatives, per the NWI Times.

Tribbit’s body was discovered days later, on September 16, near Pennsylvania Street and East 20th Avenue in Gary, Indiana, the NWI Times noted. “She was facedown and had automotive cords tied around her neck and wrists, which were bound behind her back,” the outlet said. Simmons had family in the area, according to the Tribune.

“She was dumped in an alley, among the accumulating trash,” Bokota said. “She was discarded like garbage.”

The cord binding Tribbit’s wrists turned up a positive match for Simmons’s DNA, in addition to another man, according to the NWI Times.

Prosecutor Doug Shaw said her death was an “execution,” the AP reported.

Investigators concluded Tribbit had been sexually abused more than once, but sex crime charges were not pursued in the case, The NWI Times said. Laura Tribbit, the victim’s mother, said she had forgiven the convicted child murderer as part of a necessary healing process but said God would not forgive him.

“She was 14,” Tribitt said of her daughter, per the NWI Times. “She was a baby. I don’t want to say no more. I don’t really want to look at him.”

Bokota obliged Shaw’srequest for the maximum penalty of 105 years.  Shaw said he recommended the 105-year sentence because “that’s all the law allows us.”

A presentence report noted that Simmons has twenty-five children but only recalled the names of nine, the Tribune reported.