2 more teens sentenced in shooting that paralyzed young mother

NORFOLK

In a tense, emotional day in court, Dawn Weiss faced two of the teens who attacked her and her children at a home in May.

The robbers shot Weiss five times, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down. Her daughters, Kayla and Destyni, now 10 and 6, were with her when she was shot, but they were not harmed. Weiss’ husband, Army Sgt. 1st Class Mike Weiss, was deployed in Kuwait  at the time. 

Friday brought the sentencing hearings for two of the four teens charged. 18-year-old Michael Moore Jr., one of those accused of  pulling the trigger, was sentenced to life plus 123 years in prison.

It was similar to the sentence received Thursday by his cousin, 16-year-old Keyanta Moore, who also shot Weiss. He was ordered to serve life  plus 173 years.

The day’s second hearing was for 18-year-old Vicktor Stine-Cunningham, who participated in the robbery and abduction but was not accused of shooting Weiss. Judge Everett A. Martin ordered him to  serve 20 years of a 73-year sentence.

The last defendant, Randell Barkley Jr., is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.

 Michael Moore Jr.’s guardian, a great-aunt, was ejected from the courthouse Friday after a confrontation with some of Weiss’ friends . The woman had previously been admonished by a deputy for speaking out in court.

Weiss, 31, passed out in midsentence during her testimony . Extreme drops in blood pressure are a side effect of her paralysis. Judge Jerome James Jr. called a  recess to give  Weiss’ husband, Mike, timeto assist her, and she  continued her testimony .

She told James about yelling at the four robbers when they tried to make her leave her daughters to get money from a bank. The robbers told her she shouldn’t argue, that they had the guns.

“I said my kids are coming with me, I don’t care what you say or what you do to me,” Weiss testified.

 One of Moore’s lawyers, Tonya Lomax, asked James to consider Moore a victim. She said his mother used drugs, and he never knew his father. She pointed to his guardian’s behavior in court as an example of his lack of role models. James interrupted her.

“I have a hard time to mention the word victim in reference to your client,” he said.

In Stine-Cunningham’s hearing, friends testified that the Vicktor they knew loved his mother and sister, excelled at basketball and had dreams of joining the Air Force. 

Susan Johnson, Stine-Cunningham’s mother, addressed Weiss from the witness stand. Johnson lives about a block from where the shooting happened. “I look out Vicktor’s window and I can see where your car was,” Johnson said.

She choked on tears as she told the Weisses that her son had been headed toward trouble, despite her efforts to avert it. She sent him to counseling when she found out he was using marijuana. She called the police  when Stine-Cunningham used a car she had bought him for his birthday without permission, leading to charges that put him in juvenile detention. The night of the shooting, she said, Stine-Cunningham came home screaming that he had been robbed and that someone had been shot.

Prosecutor Jim Entas pointed out that Johnson told police her son reeked of marijuana and was dressed in black clothes that didn’t belong to him.

 “He walked out of that house and made a choice I can’t defend,” she said. “I did not raise a ruthless son. He made a choice that was horrible, and that this family will have to live with for the rest of their life.”

Judge  Martin struggled in framing a sentence. He asked Entas repeatedly whether Stine-Cunningham deserved as much time as Michael Moore Jr. and Keyanta Moore  had received.

No, Entas said.

“There’s no just punishment in this case,” Martin said, looking at Dawn Weiss. “I wish I could give you his arms and his legs.”

Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com