A Georgia teenager who choked his sister to death during a fight about the family’s Wi-Fi password has been sentenced to life in prison.
The fatal incident took place in February 2018, when Kevon Lamar Watkins was 16 and his sister, Alexus Breanna Watkins, was 19, the New York Post reports. On Friday, Kevon was found guilty of felony murder and aggravated assaulted.
On the day of the attack, Kevon had reportedly been playing his Xbox and had changed the Wi-Fi password when the connection began to slow down due to the number of people using it. After Kevon’s mother tried to take the gaming system out of his room, Alexus and Kevon argued.
During the proceedings, Bibb County Superior Court Judge Verda Colvin detailed how she found Kevon guilty of murder instead of voluntary manslaughter since his 13-year-old brother had attempted to stop Kevon from hurting their sister.
“Even under the best estimation, by the time [a sheriff’s deputy] got there … It had been at least 11 minutes that the defendant had to have been choking his sister,” Colvin said. “In those 10 minutes, she had to have stopped moving. Perhaps that wasn’t noticed by the defendant because he was still angry.”
Alexus died from asphyxiation the next morning. Kevon had told an investigator he and his sister argued almost every day. According to the Post, Kevin cried when he learned about his sentence, and his only distinct words were, “I’m sorry.”
“I think everyone understands,” Colvin said, “including this court.”
“In this household, chaos was empowered,” she continued. “In this household, the ability to ignore and follow corrective discipline was empowered.”
Colvin saw her decision as “the most difficult thing I’ve had to do since I took the bench in April of 2014,” according to the Macon Telegraph.
