A Wisconsin man was sentenced to 205 years in prison for murdering five members of his family.
Christopher Stokes, 44, pleaded guilty last month to five counts of intentional homicide, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. On April 27, 2020, Stokes called 911 and told dispatchers that he’d killed his whole family.
“Um, I just massacred my whole family,” Stokes said on the 911 call. “The gun is still upstairs with the bodies.”
In a second 911 call, he told dispatchers that he’d “just killed my whole family with my Mossberg,” according to Fox 6.
The victims of the shooting included his on-and-off-again girlfriend, Teresa Thomas, 41; their shared son, Demetrius Thomas, 15; and Teresa’s daughter, Tiera Agee, 16. Two others, Lakietha Stokes, 17, and Marcus Stokes, 18, were identified as Stokes’ niece and nephew.
When police arrived, the suspect was sitting outside with the only survivor, Teresa’s 3-year-old grandchild, according to the Sentinel.
One of the arriving officers asked Christopher if he’d heard any of the shots, according to Fox 6.
“Yeah, I didn’t hear them,” said Stokes, according to the criminal complaint. “I did them.”
At Tuesday’s sentencing, Christopher Stokes was allowed to address the court.
“Don’t know what in the world came over me. Woke up and just had blood on my mind. It was, I don’t know,” said Stokes, according to Fox 6. “The reality is, I can’t take it back. I did the ultimate sin. … I deserve to be locked up. I deserve everything I get. I’m not asking for no leniency or anything like that. I deserve it. No one in the world should have done what I did.”
Judge Michelle Havas sentenced Stokes to 40 years per victim, plus another five years for the illegal possession of a gun as a convicted felon, according to the Sentinel.
Teresa Thomas’s brother, Johnny Hall, was happy with the sentencing.
“It makes me feel happy,” said Hall. “Not just for myself, but for my sister.”
The case was stalled after Stokes’ guilty plea in June to determine whether or not he was guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. After two doctors’ evaluations, they found that Stokes was fit to stand trial.
As previously reported by Oxygen.com, Stokes had a lengthy criminal history that included felony battery, felony bail jumping, and felony intimidation of a witness in 2007.
In the following years, Stokes pleaded guilty to several misdemeanor domestic violence charges, as reported by WFXR News.
Stokes began receiving help in March 2020, just at the cusp of quarantine, according to his attorney, Nathan Opland-Dobs. Stokes allegedly heard voices, but his counseling sessions were canceled in favor of phone-only communication due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting Stokes’ treatment, according to the Sentinel.
At sentencing, Opland-Dobs continued with his argument that Stokes was not in the right frame of mind, according to the Sentinel.
“Nothing else makes sense,” said Opland-Dobs. ”Nothing else would explain why this would have happened.”
