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Left: Sekou Conde (Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Donrell Canda (Obituary).
Drama and scorn ran rampant in a Michigan courtroom on Friday, where a convicted killer was shouted down by his victim’s family members before he could tender some formal condolences.
In June 2023, Sekou Conde, 24, repeatedly shot and killed Donrell Canda, 24, inside his own home – in front of the slain man’s son and girlfriend, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department.
In February, the defendant was convicted by a jury of his peers on all counts against him, including one count each of premeditated murder in the first degree, felony murder, and first-degree home invasion, as well as two counts of possession of a firearm during a felony.
On Friday, Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Carol Kuhnke sentenced Conde to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The sentence was small solace for the victim’s family.
“It’s hard for us as a family to even get together for holidays because a part of us is missing,” Stefan McCoy, Canda’s father, told the judge, according to a courtroom report by The Ann Arbor News. “A vital part of us is missing. Things don’t feel right no more.”
That part was taken from the family on the night of June 4, 2023, sometime after 10 p.m., when Conde confronted Canda as he was walking into his home on Sandalwood Circle “and opened fire,” according to a press release issued by the police department.
“The victim then entered his home where a 23-year-old female and his 3-year-old son were inside,” police wrote. “The suspect followed the victim into the home and fired additional shots.”
In the end, Canda was shot four times: once in each leg; once in the chest; once in the head, prosecutors told jurors during the trial.
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Law enforcement said the killer and the victim knew one another; evidence presented during trial suggested the motive for the killing was artistic differences about a music album the two participated in – Canda is said to have cut Conde’s presence from the recording, the deceased man’s girlfriend testified, according to the Ann Arbor News.
Conde, for his part, disputed the proffered motive.
“Honestly, what type of reason would that be to murder someone?” Conde asked out loud when taking the stand in his own defense.
But jurors believed the state.
On April 11, before being sentenced, the since-condemned man reportedly complained that his conviction was unjust. He said the prosecution allowed someone to lie on the stand and that police committed errors during their investigation.
Then, he tried to speak up in court again, one last time, in an apparent effort to offer sympathy to Canda’s loved ones.
“Once again, I would like to say I give my –” Conde began before being cut off by Canda’s shouting family members, interrupting the defendant’s would-be soliloquy with: “Don’t say it, man” and “Save it.”
The judge, for her part, admonished the breach of decorum. She reprimanded the grieving family and gave Conde another opportunity to finish his statement – but, finally, he decided on silence.
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“My heart is broke. Our hearts are broke,” McCoy reportedly added. “There is nothing I really can say that he even really give a care about.”
