DALLAS — A jury on Tuesday sentenced Darius Jamal Fields to 55 years in prison for masterminding the slaying of Shavon Randle, an innocent 13-year-old who was kidnapped and killed over a drug robbery in 2017.
The verdict came after about 2 1/2 hours of deliberation. The jury could have sentenced Fields to between 15 years to life in prison.
The same jury convicted Fields on Tuesday of engaging in organized criminal activity. Prosecutors told jurors that Fields was the kingpin of a lucrative drug business. Shavon’s kidnapping was in retaliation for $250,000 worth of stolen marijuana she had nothing to do with, prosecutors said.
Against the advice of his lawyers, Fields testified during the punishment phase of the trial. He repeatedly swore he had nothing to do with the killing of Shavon or Michael Titus, who was found dead in the same east Oak Cliff drug house and whom Fields said he loved “like a brother.”
“If I could have saved him or Shavon I would have,” Fields told the jury. Some of Shavon’s relatives quietly sighed and shook their heads as he spoke. One man walked out of the courtroom, which was full for Fields’ testimony.
‘I never considered myself a kingpin’
During questioning by his attorney, Scottie Allen, and Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Falk, Fields was alternatively charming and emotional.
Fields began crying soon after he got on the stand. Asked by Allen where his father was, Fields screwed up his face broke into tears as he explained his father spent most of his life in prison.
He cried again while mentioning that most of the people he grew up with went on to have successful athletic careers, including Los Angeles Rams linebacker Von Miller and former San Francisco 49ers nose tackle Tony Jerod-Eddie.
Jurors who weren’t wearing masks pursed their lips as Fields spoke. Others crossed their arms. One juror kept glancing toward Shavon’s family and loved ones, who were crying in the gallery and holding each other.
Asked to recall certain dates, Fields said he doesn’t like keeping time because he spent much of his time after high school incarcerated. He couldn’t remember when his son was born, but he could recall the date in 2015 when he was first released from prison.
Fields said that after his release, he fell in with the wrong group of people. He took on some legitimate jobs, but also started selling marijuana.
“I personally felt that weed would never hurt nobody,” Fields said. “I could never imagine in my wildest dreams that something like this can transpire because of marijuana.”
He denied prosecutors’ assertion that he was a drug kingpin. Fields said he wasn’t on the level of notorious traffickers like Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Pablo Escobar.
“I couldn’t even fake like I was like them, so I never considered myself a kingpin,” he said.
Fields spoke calmly and politely when he was questioned by Allen. He apologized to a prosecutor when she objected to his unresponsive answers. He said “God bless you ma’am” to a juror who sneezed. And he apologized to state District Judge Tracy Holmes when he repeated a cuss word when recalling a conversation.
His conversation with Falk was more contentious. Falk corrected Fields when he called her by her first name. When Fields insinuated he and Falk could have been friends, the prosecutor responded indigently: “We are not friends, right?”
“I think you’re a nice person,” Fields said.
Falk responded by reminding Fields he had just been convicted of masterminding the kidnapping and killing of a 13-year-old.
‘You need more evidence’
Three other men were charged in connection with Shavon and Titus’ slayings. Desmond Jones was convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity in 2020 and sentenced to 99 years in prison. Laquon Wilkerson pleaded guilty to the same charge in August in exchange for 40 years in prison. Devontae Owens’ case is still pending.
Fields believed Titus set up the robbery with a man named Kendall Perkins, who was dating Shavon’s cousin, prosecutors said. After the robbery, Fields, Jones, Wilkerson, Owens concocted a plan to kidnap Perkins’ girlfriend and hold her for ransom, prosecutors said.
Instead, Shavon was taken.
Prosecutors couldn’t prove Fields was present when Shavon was kidnapped and killed. But they argued the other men took orders from him as the ringleader.
Allen, Fields’ attorney, honed in on the lack of evidence tying Fields to the Shavon’s death.
“What more do you need? I’ll tell you what you need,” Allen said. “You need more evidence. Before they can stand up here and ask you to sentence a man to life in prison, you better believe they need more evidence.”
Allen asked the jury whether they believed a man who had a son of his own would be capable of telling someone to kill a child.
Toward the end of his argument, Allen repeated the same phrase three times: “Darius Fields is not this monster they’re telling you he is.”
“So what are y’all going to do?” he told the jury. “You gonna do what they’re telling you to do, or are you going to do what is right and fair?”
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