Even during an interview that could have helped him receive a lighter sentence, 17-year-old Ronald Hinton blamed a relative's ex-girlfriend for the rape and murder of a child he had been baby-sitting in Northeast Baltimore.
At sentencing yesterday, Baltimore Circuit Judge John Addison Howard made it clear that he did not appreciate the teenager's lack of remorse and ordered him to serve life plus 25 years in prison for the 2006 crime. Howard said the facts proved that Hinton's version of events was "absolutely untrue" and that he further victimized those he falsely accused.
"I do believe it's a good thing to have hope, but I'm not in a position to offer much hope in terms of this sentence," Howard said.
During a trial in May, prosecutors relied on a detailed, taped confession in which Hinton told police how, when he was 15 years old, he raped Ja'Niya E. Williams, bit her on the chest and thigh and beat her with a belt. Hinton changed his story in court, testifying that he was cooking breakfast when he heard a thump upstairs and found the girl lying on the floor.
Hinton declined to make a statement in court yesterday.
His defense attorney, Janice Bledsoe, had argued that there were many people coming and going at the home in the 2900 block of Goodwood Road who could have committed the crime. Moreover, DNA evidence collected from the 4-year-old's body was inconclusive.
Hinton's DNA was found under Ja'Niya's fingernail, but other samples identified "unknown individuals," including an unknown female, or did not contain enough bodily fluid or human tissue to lead to an identification.
"The prosecutor told the jurors, 'Don't worry about the DNA because that's just TV,' " said Hinton's mother, Francine Toney. "But there are people who've been in jail for 20 to 30 years, and we come to find out they're innocent because of DNA. Now if they had told me that my son's DNA was found inside Ja'Niya, then I'd have no choice but to believe them."
At trial, prosecutor Jo Anne Stanton argued that so many people had touched Ja'Niya's body - dressing it, wrapping it in a blanket, carrying it outside, trying to save her - that the DNA evidence was tainted and irrelevant.
"We did not anticipate DNA being a factor," Stanton said.
According to a Sun interview with one juror after the trial, the panel agreed and also focused on the fact that Hinton was the only person in the house at the time the toddler was fatally injured by a blow to the head.
