Milwaukee, WI
Davion Patterson, 15, died amid ‘chaos.’ A Milwaukee man responsible is going to prison
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This would have been Davion Patterson’s senior year in high school.
Graduation would have been right around the corner. Tiera Carter says she would’ve been right there, chest out, proud to watch her son march across the stage to pick up his diploma.
That didn’t happen.
Davion was 15 when he was shot to death as a gunman opened fire into a crowd of young onlookers who had gathered on Milwaukee’s north side to witness a fistfight between two girls.
“I will never be OK. Never,” Carter said at a Jan. 23 sentencing hearing for Romello Littlejohn, the man convicted of killing her first-born son. “His little brother will never know who he is, except for new pictures and us telling him stories about him.”
Littlejohn was 16 when he opened fire on a group that had gathered near 15th Street and Concordia Avenue nearly three years ago.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge John Franke sentenced Littlejohn, now 18, to spend the next 25 years behind bars.
A jury found Littlejohn guilty in December of first-degree reckless homicide as a party to a crime and various other felonies in connection with the deadly March 20, 2023, shooting that killed Davion and injured five other people.
Here’s what prosecutors say happened to Davion Patterson
A group assembled at North 15th Street and Concordia Avenue as a street fight between two girls got underway.
According to a criminal complaint, Littlejohn threatened to “pop” anyone who harmed his sister, who was involved in the fight.
Moments later, shots rang out. As many as 30 of them, Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan said.
Davion suffered 11 gunshot wounds and died.
Five others suffered injuries.
One of them, now an 18-year-old woman, was shot in the back by Littlejohn. She testified she laid on the ground next to Davion after the shooting.
However, she was unable to stand or run for cover as bullets whizzed by; she was temporarily paralyzed after the shooting, but is now able to walk after undergoing multiple surgeries.
“This was an incident of chaos and madness,” Vance-Curzan said.
Several of those who showed up to watch the fight captured video on their cellphones. Some of the footage was shown during Littlejohn’s five-day trial.
Defense attorney William Sulton reminded the judge none of the bullets that killed him were matched to the weapon that Littlejohn fired.
People on the scene, including some victims who survived the shooting, said another person whom they identified also had a gun and was seen shooting during the fracas.
Vance-Curzan said another firearm was recovered at the scene, but no one else has been charged in the incident. Littlejohn needed to be held accountable for Davion’s death and the other injuries because he put things in motion by starting the shooting, he said.
Carter said the last two mental images she has of her son still make her emotional.
One is that of Davion cleaning the kitchen. The moment came before the shooting, and, ultimately, became the last “happy” memory she has of him.
The other was of Davion lying in a casket.
“[Littlejohn] does not deserve to have a life. My son’s life was taken. He does not deserve to have a life,” Carter said.
“What he did was malicious. He does not … deserve to get out. He deserves to die himself, just like my son died.”
Littlejohn’s mother, Sheila Jones, pleaded for leniency and less prison time for her son, arguing he has matured since the shooting.
“He’s redeemable,” she said.
The shooter spoke. What did he tell the judge?
Littlejohn spoke during the 90-minute hearing, saying he didn’t intend to shoot anyone, adding he was intoxicated at the time and “wasn’t using my right mindset.”
He said he has sat up every night, trying to think of a better solution for what happened, but hasn’t come up with one.
Littlejohn pleaded Franke to give him “a second chance on life,” so he could return to his family one day, and watch his nieces and brothers grow up.
Why did the case take nearly three years to get to this point?
Lawyers for Littlejohn tried to get his case moved into juvenile court. They argued he’d get better treatment within the juvenile system, citing his age at the time of the killing.
Court records show a judge in October 2023 rejected an appeal to have his case waived into juvenile court.
Since then, the court received a half dozen letters of support for Littlejohn, many of them from juvenile justice personnel.
Franke also ordered Littlejohn to serve 20 years of extended supervision once he is finished with his prison time. Littlejohn was given 1,048 days of in-custody credit, which can be applied to his sentence.
A restitution hearing has been set for Feb. 19. Vance-Curzan requested that Littlejohn be made to pay $5,300 to cover funeral costs.
Chris Ramirez covers courts for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at caramirez@gannett.com.