A young man who slaughtered six members of his family has been sentenced to 360 years in prison.
Jurors found Raymond Childs III guilty in October of murdering his relatives during a bloody rampage in Indianapolis on January 24, 2021, when he was 17 years old.
Now 20, Childs has been sentenced for killing his father, stepmother, older brother, younger sister, his pregnant older brother’s girlfriend, and future nephew.
They were identified respectively as Raymond Childs Jr., 42, Kezzie Childs, 42, Elijah Childs, 18, Rita Childs, 13, Kiara Hawkins, 19, and her unborn child Khaos Hawkins.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said the shooting stemmed from Childs breaking his curfew and his father punishing him in their Meadows, Indianapolis home, per The Sacramento Bee.
‘What occurred inside that home is as unfathomable today as it was in 2021,’ Mears said after the conviction, according to the outlet.
‘It has been an incredibly difficult journey for the family and friends of the six people that we tragically lost.’
Childs showed little expression at his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, while wearing a pale blue shirt and checkered tie. His five-day trial ended in October 2024 with convictions on all six murder counts, as well one count of attempted murder.
Prosecutors said he barged into the home and opened fire on his family with a Draco 7.62 pistol and a 9MM handgun, killing nearly everyone in his path, including Kiara’s unborn child, who was due to be delivered just two days later.
During the massacre, the convicted murderer also shot his younger brother, Xavier Childs, then 15. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition and survived.
‘To see him behind bars for the rest of his life, that would be justice served for me,’ Roniqua Hawkins, Kiara’s heartbroken mother, told 13News when the trial began.
At the time, Childs III’s girlfriend, identified in a probable cause affidavit only as J.D., said the rampage occurred after the teen’s father called him to return home from her place that day.
The affidavit detailed how Childs III chased down a fleeing Xavier down and shot him twice as he begged for his life on the family’s porch.
After surviving emergency surgery, Xavier told police officers that he heard his father tell Childs III: ‘I’m sorry Raymond, I love you,’ before he shot his parents in their bed.
Xavier also said that before his eldest brother Elijah died, he pleaded with Childs III not to shoot, saying: ‘I can give you 40 dollars. I won’t say nothing. Please don’t kill me,’ court documents revealed.
Hawkins, who had been in bed with Elijah, was transported to a local hospital, where she died along with her unborn baby despite life-saving measures, police said.
The killer’s then-girlfriend later told police that he left in an Uber and then came back to her house sometime before 3am the following day in a white Chrysler that she said she had never seen him driving before.
About 30 minutes after Childs III returned to her house, J.D. said she got an alert on her phone about a shooting on Adams Street. She asked him if he knew anything about it, and he said no.
Later in the morning J.D. said she convinced Childs III to go to the crime scene, saying he seemed ‘nervous.’ When they both got there, he began crying and ‘acted a clown,’ she said.
They then went back to her home, where he grabbed some of his clothes and asked her to drive him to another house.
After she dropped him off, J.D. said she saw a gun fly out of the pile of clothes Childs III had left on the floor.
Childs III was arrested at a relative’s home a day after the murders after his brother identified him as the gunman.
The handgun was recovered from the family home and the Draco firearm was found after Childs III was arrested, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.
Videos later resurfaced of Childs III, who used the name ‘Lil Raymond,’ rapping about guns and shooting people, Pastor Kenneth Sullivan Jr. previously told WTHR.
‘It’s really gut-wrenching, it really hurts,’ said Sullivan, whose relationship to the Childs family is unclear.
Sullivan said it was possible that the ‘aspiring artist’ was ‘acting out’ things that he rapped about when he carried out the shooting.
Following the slaughter, Kiara’s mother, Roniqua, told DailyMail.com: ‘She was my first. Everything she taught me made me the woman and mom I am today.’
The grieving mother created a GoFundMe campaign at the time to raise money for funeral expenses, featuring a photo of her teen daughter cradling her baby bump.
On July 23, 2024, a judge declared a mistrial at Childs III’s first trial after a witness verbally confronted the now convicted killer in front of the jury, AP reported.
The trial concluded after three hours of deliberation by the jury in a Marion County courthouse.