A man who was convicted of being involved in a shooting spree that left a father and his 2-year-old daughter dead in Compton more than 25 years ago was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kelvin D. Filer imposed the term on Jahon Terez Smith, now 50, who was found guilty Aug. 14 of two counts of first-degree murder for the Aug. 8, 2001, killings of Stephen Murphy and his daughter Kali, along with three counts of attempted murder.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, as well as allegations that Smith personally discharged a firearm during the attempted murders.
The panel was the second to hear the case against Smith, who was arrested Oct. 30, 2023, by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in connection with the crimes. The first jury had deadlocked 11-1 — with the majority favoring guilt — in October 2025.
Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson said the defendant drove with an unidentified accomplice into rival gang territory shortly after a gang member was killed, with each opening fire at points.
Smith’s accomplice “killed two innocent bystanders that were not affiliated with any gang, two-year-old Kali Murphy and her 25-year-old father, Stephen Murphy, as Mr. Murphy ran away with Kali in his arms,” the prosecutor wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
Authorities said earlier that Murphy and his daughter were visiting his grandmother, and Murphy was getting ready to put his daughter in the back seat of his car when the gunfire erupted in the 13100 block of Willowbrook Avenue. Murphy tried to carry his daughter to safety when he heard the gunfire erupt, but both were shot.
In shootings before and after the murders, Smith shot two people in the head, permanently scarring them, and tried to kill another man whose car door stopped the bullet, according to the deputy district attorney.
“The investigation was dormant for over two decades, but DNA testing tied the defendant to the gun he used in the shootings, and in late 2023, he was charged with the crimes,” Thompson wrote.
Smith’s attorney, Maryam Mazhin, noted that Smith was “not the actual killer” of the young man and his daughter and that the gunman responsible for that crime “has not been caught.”
She told the judge that new detectives took over the case in 2023 under the “misnomer of this being a cold case.”
“… This is not a cold case. This is a case of incompetence,” she said. “We don’t have any of the evidence that could have exonerated Mr. Smith.”
She added that “maybe we would be seeing a completely different outcome.”
The judge heard emotional victim impact statements from members of the victims’ family.
Phyllis Murphy said she was “devastated” to lose her youngest child and her granddaughter to violence.
“My life was not the same … Their lives are forever just a memory,” she said.
Directly addressing the defendant, she said, “As far as I’m concerned, you killed them.”
In a statement read on her behalf in the Compton courtroom, the girl’s mother, Shawnna King, said her fiance held their daughter in his arms and tried to carry her to safety, and that “they deserved to live.”
“Their absence is always with me,” she said.
Of the defendant, she said, “To me, you are a monster.”
Two other family members said they wished for the death penalty, and a family friend told the defendant that it was an opportunity for Smith to “be a man, to be accountable” by telling authorities “who was in the car with you.”
The judge called the victim impact statements “powerful” and said the girl’s father “showed tremendous courage” and “the ultimate love” in trying to get his daughter to safety.
“Stephen and Kali aren’t here physically, but they are in your hearts,” the judge added.