A 26-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to spend 15 years behind bars for the “execution-style” shooting of a man he described in court as a little brother.

Daquan “Smokey” Williams pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court last year to charges that he unlawfully shot 22-year-old Isaiah Creighton with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and that he used a firearm to commit the attack.

Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe, delivering the sentence, said: “We are losing too many of our young men to violence, both victims and perpetrators.

“There are two lives that are affected by this. There is Mr Creighton, who will have to live with what happened to him for the rest of his life and will never be the same.

“In respect of the defendant, his life will also be affected. I hope that for the rest of the time that he is on this earth he will dissuade others who may wish to do what he did.”

Williams himself apologised for his actions to the victim’s mother, who was in court, saying: “I feel bad about what I did to your son. He was like a little brother to me.”

He said he was “high out of his mind” when the incident happened, and that he wished he had taken another path.

Asked by the judge what he would tell others who might carry out similar acts, he said: “Think before you act. Really stop and think about the consequences.”

Maria Sofianos, for the Crown, said Williams had known Mr Creighton and his family and had slept on their couch from time to time in the past.

At around 5pm on August 27, the victim’s father said he noticed a man approach the main door of their house in the Orange Hole area of St David’s and walk away.

He said Mr Creighton arrived home about 20 minutes later.

Minutes later the man – whom the father identified as the defendant – returned to the door and knocked.

The court heard that Mr Creighton went to the porch to speak with Williams about an incident involving Williams and another man, who had allegedly confronted the victim at his place of work and threatened his life over a traffic collision.

During the conversation on the porch, the defendant asked Mr Creighton for a cigarette and the pair went inside the victim’s home briefly where they continued to talk before they went back to the porch.

Ms Sofianos told the court Williams then said to Mr Creighton: “Here, hold onto this.”

The victim looked down and saw Williams holding a silver firearm in his hand.

Ms Sofianos said: “The defendant shot the complainant at close range in his abdomen. The complainant turned away to run into the house and was shot again.

“The complainant fell on the kitchen floor and shouted that he had been shot. The complainant dialled 911 himself and attempted to stop the bleeding.”

Williams was heard leaving the area on a motorcycle, alongside another man on a separate vehicle.

Mr Creighton was taken to hospital and underwent multiple surgeries for gunshot wounds to his abdomen and both arms.

Williams turned himself in at the Southside Police Station days after the shooting, but the firearm was never recovered.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Creighton told the court that the injuries had cost him a job he loved and left him unable to pursue his passion for cricket.

He said: “I went from being a healthy young man in his 20s who was an athlete, to now not being able to hold a cricket bat without it falling to the side.

“To know that I cannot enjoy the simple things that I was accustomed to because I have lost complete feeling on my left side of my hand and cannot rotate my wrist.

“What kind of life is this when I cannot enjoy something I loved that I was good at?”

Mr Creighton said no one should have to feel the trauma he now lives with, saying he felt like a stranger in his own skin.

Ms Sofianos that while similar offences usually carry a 25 year sentence after trial – including 15 years for shooting and a mandatory ten years for use of a firearm – Williams was entitled to a discount due to his early guilty plea.

She also highlighted that judges had been given additional discretion to offer shorter sentences for guilty pleas given the impact of Covid-19.

In the circumstances, she said a total sentence of between 15 and 16 years would be appropriate.

Elizabeth Christopher, counsel for Williams, said it was unusual for defendants in firearms offences to accept responsibility, and that her client was aware that he would have to spend a long time behind bars for his actions.

“He has decided to be a man,” she said. “Unfortunately, he wasn’t a man a year ago, but he is one now.”

Mr Justice Wolffe sentenced Williams to five years in prison for the shooting and ten years behind bars for the use of a firearm, with both sentences to run consecutively.

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