Overview
- A judge sentenced the second defendant, now 15, to seven years in the Division of Youth Services with two years of pre‑sentence confinement credit after a lengthy competency process.
- Both youths pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and first-degree arson, with sentence enhancers.
- Investigators say they returned before 4 a.m. after being asked to leave a friend’s apartment and set bushes on fire; surveillance footage showed them watching the flames grow and fleeing.
- Kathleen Payton, 31, and her 10-year-old daughter, Jazmine Payton-Aguayo, died from carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation, with 10 others injured and all residents of the 32‑unit complex displaced.
- The Payton family’s wrongful-death lawsuit was dismissed at their request in May, and prosecutors said the outcome provides a measure of justice and hoped-for closure for the community.