Inset: Kemaree Davis in Muskegon Circuit Court (WZZM). Background: The area where Davis killed 73-year-old Thomas Stewart (Google Maps).
A Michigan teenager will spend decades behind bars for killing a 73-year-old man during a home robbery. Shortly after the shooting, 16-year-old Kemaree Davis texted a friend that the “old man was dead” and said he had watched the victim “gasp his last breath.”
Muskegon Circuit Judge Matthew R. Kacel sentenced Davis on Tuesday to 20 to 60 years in a state correctional facility for the 2025 killing of Thomas Stewart, according to court records.
Davis entered a no-contest plea to one count of open murder and two felony weapons charges before receiving the sentence.
The hearing drew a courtroom filled with relatives and friends of both Stewart and the teenage defendant, MLive reported.
Authorities responding to a reported shooting on the morning of Dec. 1, 2025, found Stewart dead in the area between the kitchen and living room of a home in the 1400 block of Jiroch Street. He had suffered a gunshot wound to his upper body, as Law&Crime previously reported.
Stewart’s wallet was discovered beside his body, while his pockets had been pulled out, police said.
Surveillance video showed Davis, who knew Stewart from the neighborhood, going into and leaving the residence. Investigators arrested Davis roughly one week after Stewart’s body was found.
According to investigators, Davis went to the home intending to rob Stewart. During a police interview, he allegedly said Stewart gave him $20 after finding him inside. Davis claimed his gun “went off” and killed Stewart, then acknowledged taking an additional $20 from the victim’s wallet.
Approximately an hour after the shooting, Davis messaged a 17-year-old friend.
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“The old man is dead. Bro, I watched him gasp his last breath,” Davis wrote.
The text became important evidence for prosecutors, who also presented witness testimony and investigative findings connecting Davis to the killing.
At the sentencing hearing, Stewart’s relatives remembered him as “Uncle Tommy,” a man who dedicated his life to helping others. His son, Terrance Stewart, said his father had been fighting cancer and weighed about 100 pounds when he died.
“My father always pushed us to reach our goals and be great,” Terrance Stewart said, according to MLive. “If I could become half the man my father was, I’d live a good life.”
Another son, Dalrecus Stewart, said he had pictured his father’s killer as someone visibly evil. Seeing Davis in court left him shocked.
“He looks like a little boy,” Dalrecus Stewart said. “I wanted to hate because of the loss of my father, but it’s my father’s words to me that prevents me from going there.”
Davis apologized to Stewart’s family when the judge allowed him to speak.
“From the bottom of my heart, I just want to say I’m sorry for what happened to your loved one, Mr. Stewart,” Davis said, according to Grand Rapids, Michigan, ABC affiliate WZZM. “The world has lost a kind and caring man. I am truly sorry and I feel terrible for that, and I will for the rest of my life.”
Davis also received two years for felony firearm use and two to five years for carrying a concealed weapon. Those sentences will run concurrently. He was credited with 288 days already served, but the credit applies only to the weapons convictions and not to the murder sentence, court records show.
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