Student who killed another student gets 27 years in prison

MOUNT CLEMENS, (AP) — An honors student who fatally stabbed another straight-A student at a suburban Detroit high school tearfully expressed regret about what happened and was sentenced Wednesday to at least 27 years in prison.

Tanaya Lewis stabbed 16-year-old Danyna Gibson with a steak knife in 2018 in a dispute over a boy at Warren Fitzgerald High School, investigators said.

“I have nightmares about it. I accept my punishment,” Lewis, 19, said, adding that “no amount of apologies will take it back.”

Lewis pleaded no contest  to first-degree murder, which typically carries a life sentence with no opportunity for parole. But because Lewis was 17 at the time of the stabbing, a judge had discretion to choose a shorter term.

She will be eligible for parole after 27 years in prison.

Because of Lewis’ age, she lacked the brain development to “fully recognize the long-term consequences” of her actions, assistant prosecutor Bill Cataldo said at an August court hearing.