KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City grandmother is ready to let her 16-year-old granddaughter rest in peace. Dessie Morrison says it’s been a tough year for her family.
On April 4, 2012, 16-year-old Shalonda Jackson went to a neighborhood store to buy some aspirin. She never made it home. Her grandmother remembers their final conversation.
“As she was going out the door, I said, ‘Hey,’ she came back around the corner and said, ‘What is it, granny,’ I said buy me a Payday, and sure enough she had gotten that Payday and she was holding onto that,” said Dessie Morrison.
Shalonda was holding the candy bar at a convenient story on East 51st Street. She had been shot and killed.
Dequan Hawkins was charged and later convicted of murder and armed criminal action. Thursday he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Shalonda’s grandmother is glad the legal proceeds are done and her family can finally move on.
“I still will forgive him (Hawkins),” Morrison said. “It won’t bring her back, but it will still release me. I will be living with no animosity in my heart. I pray for him because he needs prayer.”
