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Inset: Gyasi Stribling (Oakland County Jail). Background: 12 North apartments in Southfield, Michigan (Google Maps).
A Michigan man received a decades-long prison sentence for shooting his 8-year-old sister to death in the living room of their apartment because she was “talking back” to him.
Gyasi Stribling was sentenced to between 40 and 60 years behind bars on Tuesday. As Law&Crime previously reported, a jury last month convicted the 24-year-old of first-degree murder in the 2021 death of Bailei Singleton, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said.
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“Bailei Singleton should still be here with us today,” Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement when Stribling was convicted. “Her murder was a tragedy for her family. It’s unconscionable that anyone, let alone an 8-year-old child, could be murdered by a relative and in their own home over the slightest of disagreements. This case is, unfortunately, a reminder of how gun violence is a public health epidemic that can end a life in an instant.”
Police in Southfield, a suburb of Detroit, responded on Jan. 3, 2021, to the 12 North Apartments. Bailei was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and, days later, succumbed to her injuries.
According to The Detroit News, the then 20-year-old Stribling tried to say that his sister was shot during a robbery. But that story fell apart after two witnesses in the home told a different story. He also ditched the gun but cops later found it. Police arrested Stribling a couple of days after the murder and he’s been in the Oakland County Jail ever since.
Cops were stunned by the crime.
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“It’s stressful for us,” Southfield police Chief Elvin Barren told local NBC affiliate WDIV at the time. “It’s stressful for me to stand here before you and control my emotions when talking about an 8-year-old child.”
Barren called it a “heinous crime” and said he was “confident” Stribling would go to prison. Barren’s prediction came to fruition as jurors convicted the defendant after a two-day trial.
