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Left: Sekou Conde (Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Donrell Canda (Obituary).
Intense emotions unfolded in a Michigan courtroom on Friday as the family of a murder victim interrupted a convicted killer attempting to express his regrets.
In June 2023, 24-year-old Sekou Conde fatally shot Donrell Canda, also 24, inside Canda’s home. The incident occurred in the presence of Canda’s young son and his girlfriend, as reported by the Ann Arbor Police Department.
In February, a jury found the defendant guilty on all charges, which included first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, first-degree home invasion, and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
On Friday, Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Carol Kuhnke sentenced Conde to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The sentence was small solace for the victim’s family.
“It’s hard for us as a family to even get together for holidays because a part of us is missing,” Stefan McCoy, Canda’s father, told the judge, according to a courtroom report by The Ann Arbor News. “A vital part of us is missing. Things don’t feel right no more.”
That part was taken from the family on the night of June 4, 2023, sometime after 10 p.m., when Conde confronted Canda as he was walking into his home on Sandalwood Circle “and opened fire,” according to a press release issued by the police department.
“The victim then entered his home where a 23-year-old female and his 3-year-old son were inside,” police wrote. “The suspect followed the victim into the home and fired additional shots.”
In the end, Canda was shot four times: once in each leg; once in the chest; once in the head, prosecutors told jurors during the trial.
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Law enforcement said the killer and the victim knew one another; evidence presented during trial suggested the motive for the killing was artistic differences about a music album the two participated in – Canda is said to have cut Conde’s presence from the recording, the deceased man’s girlfriend testified, according to the Ann Arbor News.
Conde, for his part, disputed the proffered motive.
“Honestly, what type of reason would that be to murder someone?” Conde asked out loud when taking the stand in his own defense.
But jurors believed the state.
Then, he tried to speak up in court again, one last time, in an apparent effort to offer sympathy to Canda’s loved ones.
“Once again, I would like to say I give my –” Conde began before being cut off by Canda’s shouting family members, interrupting the defendant’s would-be soliloquy with: “Don’t say it, man” and “Save it.”
The judge, for her part, admonished the breach of decorum. She reprimanded the grieving family and gave Conde another opportunity to finish his statement – but, finally, he decided on silence.
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“My heart is broke. Our hearts are broke,” McCoy reportedly added. “There is nothing I really can say that he even really give a care about.”
