FRANKLIN, Ind. — A Johnson County judge has sentenced a man to 50 years in prison for the murder of 16-year-old Temario Stokes Jr. in 2022.
Five years of Tyrique Radford El's sentence were suspended, and he was granted a little over two years in time served. That means his actual prison sentence will be closer to 43 years.
“There is not a sentence I could give him that will be big enough for you,” Judge Douglas Cummins said to Stokes' family.
Radford El shot and killed Stokes while he was waiting for a school bus in Greenwood shortly before 7 a.m. on Aug. 25, 2022.
Stokes was a sophomore at Whiteland Community High School. He had recently transferred to the school and only attended class for four days before the shooting.
“My baby was a sweet person. My baby was an outgoing person. My baby would give the people the shirt off his back,” Stokes' mother, Tiera Ervin Montgomery, said in the days after the shooting. “They took my heart away from me.”
Stokes’ father said his son wanted to start a landscaping company and kept asking for a lawnmower.
“He wasn’t a bad kid. All kids make bad decisions at one time, but he wasn’t a bad kid. He doesn’t deserve this,” Temario Stokes Sr. said in 2022.
Radford El reached a plea deal with prosecutors in October 2024. He was 18 years old when he killed Stokes.
The judge also had a message to Radford El's family.
"I'm not judging him as a person," Cummins said. "I am judging the actions that happened on that day."
