28/12/2023, 00:20 Teen who murdered baby in dad's arms gets 90 years to life - Los Angeles Times

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Teen who murdered baby in dad’s arms gets 90 years to life

Donald Ray Dokins, 16, turns toward his lawyer during sentencing at the Compton Courthouse on Friday. He was 15 at
the time of the crime. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

BY MATT HAMILTON, LOS ANGELES TIMES

JUNE 21, 2013 12 AM PT
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Ray Dokins’ short stature and baby face belie the crime he
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committed: the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy Less than
in the $2/week
arms of his proud and doting
then $4/week
father.

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As he prepared to sentence the teenager, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Pat
Connolly could barely contain hisYou
contempt.
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“You have no intestinal fortitude to sit up and look at me,” Connolly said to Dokins,
who was staring at the floor, avoiding
Log In | the judge’s
Interested gaze. “You have hatred in your heart
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28/12/2023, 00:20 Teen who murdered baby in dad's arms gets 90 years to life - Los Angeles Times

that I can’t understand.”

HOMICIDE REPORT: L.A. County’s victims

Prosecutors say that on June 4, 2012, Dokins, a then-15-year-old gang member, rode
up on a bicycle to a family gathered outside a home in Watts. He drew a revolver and
opened fire, killing 14-month-old Angel Mauro Cortez Vega and wounding his 21-
year-old father, Mauro Cortez. Dokins, authorities say, mistakenly believed the father
was a member of a rival gang because of the color of his T-shirt.

Prosecutors charged Dokins as an adult. Connolly sentenced him to 90 years to life in

prison.

“You’ll never have another opportunity to kill an innocent victim,” Connolly said.
“You’re not capable of showing remorse today, but I hope some time you will be able
to…. A man can’t change the length of his life, but he can change its depth and
substance.”

Before the sentencing, friends and relatives of both the victims and Dokins addressed
the court.

Dokins’ brother Derrick Washington described his sibling as a straight-A student who
wrote poetry. Washington broke
GETdown in tears, asserting
IMMEDIATE ACCESS his brother’s innocence.
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28/12/2023, 00:20 Teen who murdered baby in dad's arms gets 90 years to life - Los Angeles Times

“He’s not a monster. He’s just a little boy,” said Washington, wearing a rosary around
his neck.

Another family member told the judge that Dokins wouldn’t be around to raise his
own daughter, who police said is close to the same age as the child he killed.

Susan Cuscuna, a creative-writing instructor in the state’s juvenile-justice centers

who has taught Dokins for more than a year, said he is a “very good” student.

“He’s little in size and little inside, and he’s frightened,” Cuscuna said.

Dokins’ killing of a 1-year-old Latino has required him to go into “the shoe” — a
protective-custody unit, she said.

Threats to Dokins’ life are so grave, said his attorney Winston Kevin McKesson, that
he opposed broadcasts of the sentencing, fearing that additional pictures of his client
in the media would jeopardize his life.

Connolly allowed journalists to photograph and record the proceedings, saying that
Dokins “has made his bed, and he will now lie in it.”

Liliana Nava, 23, narrated the brief life of her son, sobbing as she marked his exact
age: 1 year, two months and three
GET days. Her husband,
IMMEDIATE ACCESSMauro, a construction worker,
could not attend out of fear it would worsen his anxiety attacks, so she spoke on his
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“We loved him, and to $4/week
then us, he was perfect,” said Nava, wearing a pendant of an angel
commemorating her son.

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The baby’s godmother, Marisol Perez, 34, described the day before the shooting,
when she and her husband playedYou can Angel
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in a nearby park. She read aloud a
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“Our family chain is broken, and nothing seems the same,” Perez said.
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28/12/2023, 00:20 Teen who murdered baby in dad's arms gets 90 years to life - Los Angeles Times

The sentencing capped a trial that concluded in early April when a jury at the
Compton Courthouse found Dokins guilty of first-degree murder and attempted
murder after less than 90 minutes of deliberations, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Danette
Gomez, who prosecuted the case.

During the trial, three witnesses identified Dokins as the killer: a family friend
present on the night of the shooting; Nava, who was standing near her husband; and
a neighbor who saw Dokins fleeing from the scene on his bicycle.

A gray hooded sweatshirt — which witnesses identified the shooter as wearing — was
found burning in an abandoned home, Gomez said. Investigators found Dokins’ DNA
on the sweatshirt’s cuff and collar.

At the time of the shooting, Dokins’ gang was actively feuding with a rival gang from
Grape Street, authorities said. Prosecutors argued that Dokins shot both victims
because the child’s father was wearing a purple T-shirt, the signifying color of the
rival gang. The child’s father is “absolutely not” a member of a gang, Gomez said.

Since his arrest, Dokins has maintained his innocence.

McKesson, Dokins’ attorney, sought a new trial Friday, arguing that the eyewitness
testimony was inconsistent and that conclusive evidence was lacking. Investigators
say they did not find the gun or
GETtheIMMEDIATE
bicycle usedACCESS
in the slaying.

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Connolly denied the motion, saying the evidence “overwhelmingly” showed Dokins’
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matthew.hamilton@latimes.com

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Matt Hamilton You can cancel anytime.

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Matt Hamilton is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He won the 2019 Pulitzer
Prize for investigative reportingLog
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28/12/2023, 00:20 Teen who murdered baby in dad's arms gets 90 years to life - Los Angeles Times

was part of the team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San
Bernardino terrorist attack. A graduate of Boston College and the University of
Southern California, he joined The Times in 2013.

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