'I must have had a lot of hate in me': A Milwaukee man receives a 205-year sentence after killing five family members
Elliot Hughes
Nobody in the courtroom during Christopher P. Stokes' sentencing hearing Tuesday had any answers as to why he decided to shoot and kill five of his family members, including four teenagers, last year.
Even though Stokes had a history of domestic violence, everyone agreed his actions the morning of April 27, 2020, in the family’s home on Milwaukee’s north side were unimaginable.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Schindhelm asked for the maximum sentence of 205 years in prison, believing that was not only a just sentence, but the only way to protect the public from Stokes and his unpredictability.
On Tuesday, Milwaukee County Judge Michelle Havas agreed, sentencing Stokes to 40 years in prison for each of the five counts of first-degree reckless homicide he pleaded guilty to, plus another five for illegally possessing a gun as a convicted felon.
“I deserve everything I get,” Stokes said before receiving his sentence. “I’m not asking for any leniency. I don’t know what made me do it and I’m sorry. The reality is I can’t take it back. I must have had a lot of hate in me. I deserve to be locked up.”
Killed in the shooting were Teresa Thomas, 41; her two children, Tiera Agee, 16, and Demetrius Thomas, 14; and two other teens related to Christopher Stokes who had been staying with the family – Marcus Stokes, 19, and Lakeitha Stokes, 17.
Johnny Hall, the brother of Teresa Thomas, said after the hearing he had been hopeful Stokes would receive a maximum sentence.
“It makes me feel happy, not just for myself, but for my sister,” he said.
Stokes, 44, pleaded guilty to the charges in June after his case was stalled for months to determine whether he qualified for an NGI plea — not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. He was examined by two doctors, but neither supported him making such a plea.
But his attorney, Nathan Opland-Dobs, couldn’t help but dwell on that Tuesday. He concluded his client’s actions were “not something a sane person, a normal person, would do.”
“Nothing else makes sense,” he said. "Nothing else would explain why this would have happened."
Coming two months after five people were shot and killed at the Molson Coors complex, it was the second mass shooting Milwaukee experienced during a historically violent 2020.
According to prosecutors, Stokes called 911 the morning of April 27, 2020, and told dispatchers he “just massacred my whole family” in a home along the 2800 block of North 12th Street, in the North Division neighborhood.
Police estimate the shooting occurred about 5 a.m., based on statements from neighbors who said they heard a “booming” noise during the overnight hours. It’s believed Stokes fired 12 shots from a shotgun.
When police arrived, they found Stokes sitting outside the home with the 3-year-old grandchild of Stokes and Teresa Thomas — the lone survivor of the shooting. Prosecutors said Tuesday the grandchild witnessed the killings and was spared after he asked Stokes not to hurt him.
But why Stokes hurt anyone is not something he had an answer for Tuesday. Schindhelm said Stokes initially told police it was because his family members “kept (expletive) with him” and his nephew was “talking slick.”
Stokes said he woke up that day “and I just had blood on my mind. Something just wasn’t going right. I don’t know.”
Opland-Dobs said Stokes still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being set on fire by one of his siblings as an adolescent.
Stokes has a history of domestic violence convictions dating to 2002 and was arrested under suspicion of child abuse in 1997, according to court records and a criminal history report from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. No charges were filed in the child abuse case.
Less than two months before the shooting, Stokes had chances at receiving help. In early March, right before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Milwaukee, Stokes started attending a clinic for anger issues and hearing voices, Opland-Dobs said.
But that was soon disrupted by social distancing, abbreviating his counseling sessions and moving them over the phone.
Even Stokes' family had grown concerned. In a victim impact statement at Tuesday’s hearing, his sister, Lannie Stokes, tearfully recalled realizing something was wrong and reaching out to him a month or two before the shooting.
But he wouldn’t talk to her then. On Tuesday, Lannie alternated between telling her brother how mad she was at him, and how she still loved him. She pleaded with him again to say something, anything, to her.
All he could muster in reply was, “I’m sorry.”
Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.