Man Convicted of Killing 5-Year-Old Cannon Hinnant Sentenced to Life in Prison After Plea Deal to Shield Hinnant’s Siblings From Having to Testify

28-year-old Darius Sessoms was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, bringing the legal process to a close in the killing of 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant.

Sessoms, a black man, killed Hinnant, who was a white boy, in August 2020, during the summer of the BLM riots.

Although a connection between the two was never established, a clear motive was never established for the execution-style murder.

Hinnant’s mother Bonny Parker wanted the death penalty for Sessoms, but that would have meant that her two daughters would have had to testify if the case had gone to trial.

Parker said of the decision, “Though his life should be cut short, my girls don’t deserve to go through that.”

However, Parker was able to deliver a victim impact statement in court and she said she had waited more than two years to say those words to Sessom.

Although the legal process is coming to a close, the fact that there was no clear motive means that Parker does not have closure.

“So, it’ll never be closure for me. Yes it’s peace to know that I don’t have to walk back in that courtroom and see his face again, [but] he’ll suffer in that prison, and he’ll have to face what he [has] done every day for the rest of his life,” Parker insisted.

One witness to the shooting, Doris Lybrand, said she saw Sessoms run up to Cannon and put the gun near the boy’s head before running back to his own house.

Lybrand explained, “My first reaction was he’s playing with the kids. For a second, I thought, ‘That couldn’t happen.’ People don’t run across the street and kill kids.”

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