2nd man arraigned in Michigan toddler's slaying

7/5/2014
ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Inkster-Shooting-Toddler-Killed-3

    This photo provided by the Michigan State Police on Saturday, July 5, 2014 shows Raphael Hearn. The 29-year-old man was ordered jailed Saturday in connection with the slaying of a 2-year-old Detroit-area girl, the second man charged in what investigators believe could have been a retaliatory attack for a shooting in April 2014. (AP Photo/Michigan State Police)

    ASSOCIATED PRESS

  • INKSTER, Mich. (AP) — A 29-year-old man was ordered jailed Saturday in connection with the slaying of a 2-year-old Detroit-area girl, the second man charged in what investigators believe could have been a retaliatory attack for a shooting in April.

    Raphael Hearn of Inkster was arraigned via video in Romulus District Court on first-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to murder and using a firearm during a felony. He was charged in Tuesday night’s shooting death of the toddler outside a home in Inkster, a mostly working-class community southwest of Detroit.

    The girl was shot in the head while on a porch in front of her father, Ken French, and 13-year-old family friend Chelsea Lancaster who also were shot.

    State police spokesman Lt. Mike Shaw said earlier this week that the toddler was the intended target and that the shooter “was going to kill the child in front of” her father “and then kill him afterward so that it would be the last thing he sees.”

    Raymone Jackson, 24, is accused of being the gunman. He was arraigned Thursday on murder, attempted murder and torture charges. A third person was released by police.

    “The alleged facts in this case, including the deliberate shooting that killed an infant and injured a young girl, are among the most heinous that I have ever seen,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Saturday.

    The toddler’s name has been given by police as Kamiya Gross. But Mary Mazur of the medical examiner’s office said the girl’s mother identified her as Kamiya French.

    Hearn was ordered held without bond and faces a July 16 preliminary examination. He did not have a lawyer at Saturday’s arraignment.