A man was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in state prison in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old mentally disabled man who was apparently killed because he was wearing red shoes.
Dwight Smith had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the May 2015 killing of Tavin Price.
Two gang members, Kanasho Johns and Kevin Deon Johnson, were convicted of first-degree murder and have already been sentenced.
Both the prosecution and defense agreed Smith confronted Price in a smoke shop near the car wash in the 3300 block of West Florence Avenue, while Johnson stood nearby. That conversation and the shooting itself were caught on surveillance video, though there was no audio recording.
Smith identified himself as a gang member and said to Price, "Why are you wearing all that red? Where are you from?" according to Johnson's attorney, Curt Leftwich.
"I don't bang," Price replied, to which Smith retorted, "Come out of those shoes," according to Leftwich.
A short while later, Price was standing by his mother's car when a gunman fired four rounds at and struck him.
