Teenager jailed for 55 years for Milton Street murder; He still claims he was framed

Ayden Lee, 15, Allen County Sheriff’s Department

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Ayden Lee sat in an orange prison uniform, his hands and feet shackled, and cried with his face in his hands as he was sentenced Friday.

He cried as his mother took to the microphone to plead with Judge Sam Keirns, the sentencing judge, to take into account his age and his general gentleness toward his siblings. He was a good kid. That was how she knew him.

But Ayden, now 15, will spend 55 years in an Indiana prison for fatally shooting 17-year-old Mario “Mookie” Smith, who was killed last October 29 at a party house on Milton Drive.

Mookie had the misfortune of accompanying his friend to the house where the friend’s girlfriend, 13-year-old Alexis Sims, lived with her half-elderly father.

According to court testimony, she apparently invited both of her suitors but did not tell them. Lee was convicted by a jury in May.

Ayden claimed he was set up that night when he was sitting in his ex-girlfriend’s upstairs bedroom and two older boys came upstairs to tell him he had to go, at Sims’ urging.

A confrontation ensued and Ayden pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot Maria. He said he felt threatened. When police arrived, Smith was lying on the floor, where he took his last breath.

Lee’s attorney, Robert Scremin, expressed disappointment that the jury did not find Lee’s move was self-defense. I remembered the image of a petite 14-year-old girl being overpowered by two 17-year-old boys.

But as Assistant Prosecutor Tasha Lee argued, it was Lee who brought the gun. Keirns, reviewing Lee’s file, saw that he had been adjudicated as a juvenile for possession of a firearm, and the case had been closed just two weeks before the murder.

Latania Menzies, Smith’s aunt, said the family accepted the 55-year sentence (murder carries a sentence of 45 to 65 years in the state) and sympathized with Lee’s mother.

Katie Fell, his cousin, Jovanna Smith, his sister and Brenda Lee and his grandmother came to the microphone to tell Keirns what a loss it was to lose Mookie. He was the protector of his sisters, the kid who told everyone he loved them, the guy who retreated into a shell when he was younger as he watched his mother die from an attack.

The fact that he had become more social and had a girlfriend made it even harder for him to come to terms with the fact that his life had been cut so tragically short.

“They spend a lot of time on these activities,” warned Clay Washington, Smith’s uncle, after the sentencing. “This kid just lost 55 years of his life over a mistake he could have simply made verbally.”

His message to parents was clear.

“If you know of your teenage child at home and you know that he has a gun in the house or he is here doing things that he shouldn’t be doing, please explain to them that they are giving these young people 55 years in prison for free. If you care enough about your child, talk to him. Don’t let your child do things that you know you would want better for him.

“We don’t want them to be out here killing people, robbing people and taking things from hard-working people, taking family members that they love out of here,” Washington said.

Search their rooms, phones and social media, Washington said.

“You are their parents.”