MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – It was a crime that outraged the city, from the mayor to average citizens.
Gunfire from the street on Rhett Drive in December 2023 cut down Cailee Knight, a 9-year-old girl asleep on a couch in her home. Prosecutors say the bullets were intended for her brother.
This week, the first of five defendants charged in her death is set to go on trial for capital murder. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, which means Darius Janoski Lucky Jr. faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole if the jury finds him guilty of the top offense. Prosecutors allege that the 20-year-old Mobile man was one of at least two men who fired shots into the house.
“This is, obviously, just a tragic and horrific case,” said Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood, who personally will try the case. “So we are seeking, aside from the death penalty, the maximum punishment that can be imposed.”…