A 35-year-old man was given a 100-year sentence of hard labour for killing a 5-year-old Indian girl in the US state of Louisiana in 2021, according to local media sources.
Local news organisations including KSLA News 12 and the Shreveport Times reported that Joseph Lee Smith of Shreveport was sentenced after being found guilty in January of killing Mya Patel.
Patel was playing when a bullet entered her hotel room on Monkhouse Road and shot her in the head. Patel was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she fought for three days before being declared dead on March 23, 2021.
The jury learned during Smith’s trial that he had a confrontation with another guy in the Super 8 Motel’s parking lot. At the time, Vimal and Snehal Patel, who shared a ground-floor apartment with Mya and a younger sibling, owned and ran the hotel.
Smith fired a 9-mm handgun while shooting the other man during the altercation. The second man was not hit by the bullet, but it entered the hotel room and grazed Patel’s mother before striking Patel in the head.
According to reports, District Judge John D. Mosely sentenced Smith to 60 years of hard labour without the prospect of probation, release, or a sentence reduction in connection with the murder of Mya Patel in March 2021.
In addition, Smith was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated violence and 20 years for obstructing the course of justice in connection with the murder of Patel. These sentences must also be fulfilled without the benefit of probation, parole, or sentence reduction, according to the reports.
The Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office stated on Thursday that because Smith had previously committed felonies, his sentence had been increased and that he would have to serve a total of 100 years in prison.
