A state judge this week sentenced 19-year-old Tremaine Poole to 30 years in prison and 10 years on special parole for the 2024 murder of 17-year-old Daily Jackson. State Superior Court Judge Tracy Dayton handed down that sentence on Tuesday following a hearing in New Haven state court on Church Street. The sentence comes after Poole pleaded guilty to murder and criminal possession of a firearm in this case. It also comes nearly two years after Jackson, a Riverside Academy student, was shot and killed at around 6:41 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2024, while walking on Shelton Avenue near Huntington Street in Newhallville. Jackson’s homicide took place less than two weeks after Uzziah Shell, a 16-year-old fellow Riverside Academy student and friend of Jackson’s, was shot dead near Goffe and Hudson streets in the Dixwell neighborhood on Nov. 22 of that year. City police arrested Poole, who was 17 at the time, for Jackson’s murder in January 2025. The warrant for Poole’s arrest revealed that the killing of Jackson may have stemmed, in part, from a gun allegedly stolen from Poole by Shell, Jackson’s friend. “Daily was a beautiful young man with an enormous heart,” Jaychelle Jackson, Daily’s aunt and legal guardian, told the Independent in an email comment on Friday. “He was wise beyond his years and possessed a personality and smile that could captivate an entire room. He was loved by so many, and he truly embodied love.” Jackson said that her nephew’s absence “is loud, his loss is painful, and the void he has left behind is impossible to describe.” As Daily’s aunt and as the person who raised him, “I was a mother figure in his life. I loved my brother’s children as if they were my own, and losing Daily has taken an immeasurable toll on me and my entire family. I could never sum up his life in a few words, especially while I am still trying to process the reality of his loss. Daily touched hundreds of lives. I raised him with love and taught him to love, respect, and show kindness to others, and to always lend a helping hand to those in need. He carried those values with him and lived them every day.” Jackson said that, during the sentencing hearing, she heard Poole say, “I didn’t have a problem or beef with Daily, just his friend.” “Imagine hearing those words about the beautiful young man you raised and loved as your own,” Jackson wrote. “Nothing frightens me more than knowing how hard I work and pray to give my children everything they need — a loving home, guidance, values, a proper upbringing, and every opportunity to succeed — only to send them out into a world where they may encounter others who do not share those same values. No parent should ever have to live with that fear, and no family should have to endure this kind of heartbreak.” She stressed that Daily’s life mattered, and that she and many others “will carry him in our hearts forever.” Gloria Jackson, who was also Daily’s aunt, told the Independent that she was not at Tuesday’s court hearing “due to the fact that I’m having a hard time adjusting.” She said that Daily’s father — her brother — lived with her when he was killed in the Hill in 2008. She also said that she had picked up Daily from work 30 minutes prior to her nephew’s death. “There is a such thing called Sins of the Father,” Gloria Jackson told the Independent in an email comment. “Daily was able to [wander] the city without worry because he carried his father’s social energy! Always made friends with everyone including the people who didn’t like him! He let them get to know him as a person. Tremaine Poole saying he didn’t have a problem with Daily is wild. Had he [taken] the extra [minute] to try and squash the issue with Daily’s friends he would not now have the reputation of his father who killed a young mother in front of her children.” Shelley Mackinnon, one of Jackson’s godparents, told the Independent in a separate email comment that the last two years “have been extremely difficult for all of us. I know that December 3, 2024, was the worst day of my life, and of the lives of so many family members and friends who loved and cared for Daily. Since then, time has split into two: life before, with Daily, and life after Daily.” Mackinnon said that she and her husband Colin Ryan were at the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, as were “many of Daily’s family and friends.” “Since Daily’s death, our oldest son Henry regularly asks us how he died,” Mackinnon wrote. “We say things like, ‘He got really hurt and died in the hospital.’ We cannot bear to tell him the truth. How do we tell a child that someone would deliberately hurt Daily?” “Although it will not bring Daily back to us,” Police Chief David Zannelli told the Independent in an email comment, “we hope that the recent sentencing decision from Judge Dayton provides the victim’s family with some semblance of justice and closure. Anyone who makes the decision to commit gun violence in the city will be identified and held accountable.” Defense Attorney: “I Truly Believe That By The End Of His Sentence He Will Be Rehabilitated And Not A Danger To Society” In a separate email comment sent to the Independent, Poole’s attorney, Kaprice Bonaiuto Blatche, said that this was “a very sad and tragic case for all parties involved. The victim was very young and Mr. Poole is also very young. He was 17 at the time of the crime and 19 years old at the time of sentencing. At sentencing Mr. Poole took responsibility for his actions and apologized to the victim’s family.’ She said that she believes that Poole “has already started taking the steps towards rehabilitation before he was sentenced.” She said that Poole, who is currently incarcerated at Manson Youth Institution, is two credits away from getting his high school diploma through the Department of Correction (DOC). “Now that he’s sentenced, he’ll have more program opportunities, and I truly believe that by the end of his sentence he will be rehabilitated and not a danger to society. Like I said he was very young at the time, and it is known that teenagers lack the impulse control and the ability to regulate their emotions.” Blatche said that she, New Haven State’s Attorney Jack Doyle, and Judge Dayton had “extensive pretrial discussions about this case, and I did try and fight for a lower offer.  The judge and state both felt that the offer of 30 years, 10 special parole was fair based on Mr. Poole’s age alongside the facts of the case. Although I wish I could have gotten him a lesser sentence, I believe this sentence is a lot better than what he could have gotten if he went to trial and lost.” She added that Judge Dayton noted during the sentencing that Poole felt guilty and has learned from this. She said she thinks that Poole needed to hear that “especially because of how young he is and has the time to grow and become a better person throughout this incarceration.” Asked about how Poole’s father was also accused of murder and subsequently died in a shootout with police, Blatche said, “One thing Mr. Poole has stated about his father’s absence was that he didn’t have any male role model and felt that he wished he had his dad around to give him life advice and to guide him.” Mackinnon, one of Daily’s godparents, told the Independent that, because Poole was 17 when he killed Jackson, “we were told that there is a very good chance that the parole board will grant him parole after he has served 60% of this sentence. That would be roughly 18 years (including the time that he has already served), meaning he could potentially be in his early 30s when he is released. 18 years doesn’t feel like justice to the people who loved Daily.” The post Daily Jackson’s Killer Sentenced To 30 Years appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less