Faux gun deal killing nets 95 years in prison
Nov 22, 2024
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A 26-year-old man accused of helping orchestrate a fake gun deal in order to kill another man inside a car parked on the southeast side nearly two years ago received a 95-year prison sentence Friday.
A jury in Allen Superior Court previously found Anfernee Michael Sho Time Dean guilty of murder and robbery in connection with the killing of 27-year-old Johnny Yates, Sr., in November 2022.
Friday, Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull handed Dean 65 years in prison on the murder count and another 30 years on the robbery count - to be served consecutively to each other, according to court records.
Dean is one of a trio that were thought to have played a part in the killing, court records said.
Teen sentenced to 65 years in fake gun deal turned murder
Anfernee Michael Sho Time Dean
Fort Wayne police responding to a reported shooting in the 2900 block of Reed Street on Nov. 28, 2022, found a Yates suffering from gunshot wounds to his back in a car along nearby Monroe Street.
While still alive when rescue workers arrived at the car, Yates died later a local hospital.
A woman identified as Yates’ girlfriend was also inside the car. She later told detectives in court documents she had driven Yates to the 2900 block of Reed Street in order to meet with three “younger adults” who wanted to trade guns.
The three were supposed to trade a Glock 48 with a drum magazine for two of Yates’ guns, the woman told detectives in court documents, and the deal was supposed to take place in the car.
While she sat in the driver’s seat and Yates sat in the car’s passenger seat, two people got into the back seat of the car to conduct the gun deal, court documents said.
Shortly thereafter, a man known as “Ace” but later identified as Dean, approached the vehicle and talked to Yates through the window, according to court documents.
The scene of a shooting that left 27-year-old Johnny Yates Jr. dead Nov. 28, 2022.
Once this happened, the two people in the backseat pulled out guns and pointed them at Yates and the woman, court documents said, demanding they hand over everything they had.
At some point, the woman shut off the car and fought with one of the three people over the keys, she later told detectives. That's when gunshots rang out, causing her to dive out of the car.
Dean and the others ran from the scene and the woman hopped back into the car and began driving with an injured Yates, ending up on Monroe Street, according to court documents.
In the aftermath, Fort Wayne police detectives arrested then 17-year-old Lonnel Tinker as one of the people involved in the killing. Charged with felony murder and robbery as an adult by Allen County prosecutors, Tinker took his case to trial.
A jury found him guilty of both felony murder and robbery last year and he was eventually sentenced to 65 years in prison - a judge having merged his two counts at sentencing. At his sentencing hearing, Tinker maintained his innocence and claimed he jumped out of the car before the shooting happened.
Tinker and Dean are the only ones to be charged in Yates' death.
During his sentencing hearing Friday, the judge gave Dean 709 days credit for time served in Allen County Jail while the case wound through the justice system.