Teen gets 50 years in prison for role in carjacking

A Polk County District Court judge Friday sentenced a teenager to up to 50 years in prison for his involvement in a ruthless carjacking.

However, Judge Karen Romano opted to waive the mandatory minimum sentence, a move that means Terrance Lamont Cheeks Jr., 17, will not have to serve 70 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

"I don't consider you to be a throwaway kid or a young man incapable of rehabilitation," Romano told Cheeks.

But because Cheeks has a lengthy juvenile record coupled with the severity of his most recent crimes, the teen needs to spend time in prison, she said.

Cheeks was one of three teenagers involved in carjacking a vehicle in February 2013 and leaving the driver unconscious in a snowy street.

Mike Wasike, the vehicle's driver, suffered permanent brain damage and is in an Oklahoma facility.

Cheeks is the first of three teenagers involved in the carjacking to be sentenced. Kenneth Barry, 17, will be sentenced on Monday after he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit forcible felony.

Leshaun Murray, 16, who Barry testified struck Wasike, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree robbery and will be sentenced in July.

Cheeks was found guilty by a jury on April 24 of two counts of first-degree robbery.

Joan Namachemo, Wasike's wife, had a prosecution attorney read a victim impact statement during Friday's testimony.

"The impact of your poor decisions not only destroyed Mike's life but our family," she wrote . "You've destroyed our family's well-being."

Cheeks bowed his head and rubbed his eyes as the statement was read. He kept his head down even as his own attorney stood to speak.

The prosecution and defense presented differing views of Cheeks.

According to a prosecutor, Cheeks was one of the worst delinquents the office had seen, someone who racked up a lengthy criminal record and made no attempts at rehabilitating himself. He was a danger to society, he said.

"Judge, he is a very dangerous person," Assistant Polk County Attorney Frank Severino said. "He is either unwilling or unable to follow the law."

Severino added, "For all practical purposes, he killed Mr. Wasike that night. Michael Wasike died in the street because of the actions of the defendant and others."

But defense witnesses had a different view: a teenager grieving after a close friend's suicide and wanting to fit in who had succumbed to peer pressure and committed horrible crimes. But he could change, they said.

Cheeks also read a statement at the hearing. Looking sometimes at the judge, sometimes down, he apologized to Wasike's family, to the court and to his own family. "I want to take responsibility for what happened," he said.

He said he had vowed to leave gang life and the friends he had committed crimes with behind.

"I had many, many chances, I messed all of them up," he said. "I don't want to let my dad or my family down anymore. I want to take that label off my back by showing I can turn it around. … I want to live life how you're supposed to live life."

Defense attorney Joey Hoover told Romano that he thought Cheeks could be an example.

"He would be able to become an example of overcoming a bad situation, of the dangers of gang culture, of what can happen with just one blow," he said.

Romano's decision was based on a series of recent U.S. and Iowa high court cases that have instructed judges to take into account an offender's youth in sentencing, Romano said. So she waived the mandatory minimum.

She also encouraged Cheeks to take full advantage of all programs in prison.

Cheeks likely won't appeal the sentence. "Certainly we would have liked to see probation. That would have given him the best chance to be successful," his attorney said.

"In the end, it was a fair decision."