East St. Louis man to serve 40 years in drug-related killing

Deneshion Swope and Jarrett Mosby had led very different lives before they met on a Madison street on a cold December day.

But that meeting ended with one young man shot to death, and the other in prison for at least the next 40 years.

Swope was sentenced Thursday in Madison County Circuit Court for the drug-related killing that occurred Dec. 23, 2013.

By all accounts, Jarrett Mosby was raised in a warm, loving Collinsville family. His mother, Miranda Williams, said watching Jarrett grow up was “an amazing experience.”

The second of four children, Mosby was a straight-A student in high school. Described as a generous and thoughtful young man, he once arranged a school-supply drive to help get supplies for all the students in his class, many of whom were less fortunate.

Mosby fathered a child at a young age, but remained determined to go to college to support his son and himself, according to his family. He began applying his junior year and was accepted at every college to which he applied. In the end, he chose the University of Missouri Columbia, but he called his mother every day and returned often to visit his son, or Williams would bring his son to visit him at school.

He was a mentor to kids in the local schools in Columbia and interned with Pepsi Co. and the Missouri Department of Transportation. By the time he met Swope on the day of the killing, Mosby was 21 years old and a senior majoring in business, having earned the honor roll all four years of college and had been accepted into the National Honor Society.

Swope, now 26, had a very different childhood. Born to a drug addict mother in East St. Louis, he was often left alone in a filthy apartment, locked in a closet or forced to sleep in a bathtub, according to his defense attorney, Tim Berkley. Eventually his own grandmother called the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and he was removed from his mother’s care and placed in foster care.

But that was no respite, according to Berkley: Swope was beaten and sexually abused while in the system. Finally he was adopted by the late Mary Swope, who cared for him and tried to undo the damage that had been done, Berkley said. Deneshion rejected his birth name of Henderson and took Mary Swope’s name. But he fell into drugs and violence; at the time he met Mosby, he was on parole for federal weapons charges.

What led them to meet on that road was a drug deal, but it was Mosby who was planning to sell marijuana to Swope, not the other way around. And no one is quite sure how that happened, authorities said.

Mosby had no prior record, according to Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons, and he had no drugs in his system when his body was found. But the exchanges of phone calls and texts leading to that road in Madison made it clear: Mosby planned to sell drugs to Swope, and something went wrong.

Both sides agreed: Mosby was driving the car, and Swope got in the car as planned to buy the drugs.

But then a couple of men began approaching the car, and apparently each thought the other one had set him up to be robbed.

Mosby hit the accelerator and drove away a few blocks at a high rate of speed, then pulled over and ordered Swope to get out of the car.

“I didn’t mean to hurt nobody,” Swope said as he gave his statement directly to the family of Jarrett Mosby during court on Thursday. “I panicked, I messed up. I thought I was in jeopardy for my life.”

Swope shot Mosby nine times. According to the prosecution, it took Mosby more than 15 minutes to die. Swope sat beside him the entire time and did not call for an ambulance. But he was gone by the time Madison Police arrived and found Mosby dead in the car at Second and Bissell streets. The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis was activated to investigate the murder.

In his statement, Swope called Mosby his friend. “I wish you could forgive me,” he told Mosby’s family. “I’m not a bad person… I didn’t mean to take your son away from you.”

Miranda Williams asked that Gibbons read her victim’s impact statement for her, and broke down crying as he spoke.

“My son leaves behind a very intelligent 8-year-old son who will for the rest of his life be fatherless,” Williams wrote. “My life will never be the same. Not only did he take away my son’s dreams, but he also took away his son’s dreams at having a father figure in his life… My grandson will never be able to enjoy anything that involves father and son. It has been extremely hard explaining to my grandson that his dad did not leave him because he didn’t like him, but that he was taken away from him.”

Berkley said it was an “unfortunate entanglement of two very different lives,” and Swope had acted out of an unreasonable fear for his life. Swope also has a son, Berkley said, who now will also grow up without a father in his life.

Neither side could explain how Mosby ended up attempting to deal marijuana.

“I can’t explain why someone who has that much going for him was out selling drugs,” Berkley said, pointing out that both Mosby and Swope were in their early 20s. “Sometimes people in their 20s make terrible mistakes. … Do not make the sentence so long that he can’t become a useful citizen.”

But Gibbons argued that Swope had not only taken away all of Mosby’s life, but also his son’s future with his father, and “all the good Jarrett would have done for this world.”

He said Swope’s life experiences were not an excuse or explanation for the violence he had caused. “Jarrett gave him a chance to walk away, and instead, he killed him,” Gibbons said.

Shortly before his trial was to begin, Swope pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder, and prosecutor Jennifer Mudge dropped the additional weapons charge. That left him eligible for a sentence between 20 and 40 years in prison.

In the end, Associate Judge Neil Schroeder said no sentence, short or long, would bring back Jarrett Mosby.

“I can’t dispense vengeance. I can’t dispense forgiveness,” Schroeder said. “I have to determine what the sentence is under the law, and emotion cannot play a part in that sentence.”

The judge said he believes Swope is still trying to duck responsibility for his actions and expressed surprise that he called Mosby his friend.

“The court cannot even fathom sitting in a car with someone you called a friend for 15 to 20 minutes, waiting for him to take his last breath,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder sentenced Swope to 40 years in prison, the maximum amount allowable by law. Swope is required to serve 100 percent of the sentence. He may also have to serve additional time on the federal charges and has been involved in two altercations in jail; one of which carries a charge of aggravated battery that is still pending. He has the right to appeal his sentence.

Miranda Williams broke down sobbing after the sentence was pronounced, leaning on a relative’s shoulder before hugging Gibbons and Mudge. She declined to speak afterward, but her victim impact statement included her request for the maximum sentence for Swope.

“This is not going to bring my son back, but it sure will give me a little closure, that someone will be punished and will never be able to harm nor will he be able to take another life,” she wrote.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 9:41 AM.