Full hearing: Ex-boyfriend who pleaded guilty to murdering London Thomas learns sentence

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Yes, thank you. [00:00:13] Speaker 2: Calling case number 2600054602FC in the matter of the people of the state of Michigan v. Mr. Jalen Tyler Pendergrass. [00:00:26] Speaker 3: Good morning everyone. Other than what has previously been stated on the record, any additions, corrections, or deletions to the PSI? [00:00:51] Speaker 1: Oh, not on behalf of the people. [00:00:56] Speaker 3: No, not on behalf of the people. Thanks, Judge. [00:00:59] Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. And then with regards to the guidelines, the guidelines in this case are 144 to 240. Any changes or do both parties stipulate to that? I'll stipulate to those guidelines. [00:01:12] Speaker 4: I will as well, Judge. [00:01:13] Speaker 1: Okay. Anything on behalf of the people. [00:01:16] Speaker 4: Judge, I believe there are at least two family members of the deceit and potentially three family members who would like to speak here. Okay. If the court would permit that. [00:01:24] Speaker 1: Absolutely. And we will, one by one, you can call the first individual and they can sit in the witness chair, okay? Okay. [00:01:34] Speaker ?: Ms. Bennett. [00:01:34] Speaker 4: Okay, Ms. Bennett. Thank you. [00:02:05] Speaker 1: Good morning, Ms. Bennett. Good morning. Thank you for being here today. Can you just state your name for the record, please? [00:02:29] Speaker 5: My name is Barbara Bennett. [00:02:30] Speaker 1: Okay, and once again, thank you for being in what relationship you've had to London Thomas. I'm very grateful. Okay, well, thank you for being here. This is the opportunity under the Crime Victims' Rights Act for you to be able to make a statement. You can direct your comments to me and take your time. Okay. [00:02:53] Speaker 5: London left me with beautiful meanings. Her love is still my guide. And though I cannot see her, she is always by my side. Her limb has fallen from our family tree, and that says, Greek, not for me. I remember this time to laugh with a good life that London lived and was strong. Although London may seem far away, we will truly never part. The part of her lives are on forever through my heart. As life's beautiful journey continues. I will always know London, always until we meet again. And the only regret that I have is that Charlotte and Jaylen Pendergrass are still walking this earth, and London is mine. And he is a waste of skin. [00:03:52] Speaker ?: That's it. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. All right. [00:03:58] Speaker 1: I will be. If anybody needs, obviously, the help, Ms. Bennett. Come on. Come on. [00:04:23] Speaker 6: Thanks, sir. Yes. [00:04:28] Speaker 1: Good morning. [00:04:46] Speaker ?: Good morning. Can you say your name for the room? Yes. My name is Martin. [00:04:51] Speaker 1: Mr. Martin, thank you for being here, and what relationship you have with London. Thank you. Thank you. Take your time. I just want to say, you know, you've heard us talking about my mind. [00:05:10] Speaker 7: I never met you before, but me and I had a good relationship. That was my friend. And you took a piece of me. You took a hold on my heart. I wasn't able to talk since it happened. I think it passed like stroke, but you took a part of me, and whatever you did. Lord, I ain't never been this way about nobody, but I had sleepless nights. my grandmother pictures all over my house. And my birthday was yesterday. And she's still with me because you've been sentenced today. So I just ask God to have it. I just don't know. It's really hard on me. So wherever you get, it's much of a different. And I ain't never been able to have animosity in my heart for nobody. But I do for you because you took a part of my life that would never be killed. Not damn. But I still hurt every day, every day. But it's her birthday gift to me because of my birthday. I can leave me and send this and that. That's all I want to have to say. [00:06:39] Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Martin. Okay. And please, um... [00:06:45] Speaker 4: Judge, the last individual I believe is Jazz, her mother of Ms. Thomas. Okay. Thank you. [00:06:54] Speaker 1: Good morning, thank you for being here. Thank you. And can you state your name? Yes, it is Jazz, and you are London's? I'm London Thomas. Yes. Okay. Thank you for being here. Thank you. And take your time, do your best to direct your comments to me, okay? Thank you. Yes. [00:07:36] Speaker 6: I am struggling to find words when there are none to express the feelings that I have. I had and I will have. Yet I will try. Losing London has been the most horrific and difficult events of my life. But with the Creator's grace and mercy, I will keep on going. I know that London is with me everywhere that I go. No matter what. No matter what. She may not be in a body, but she will always be with me. Maintaining a sense of normalcy within her daily life. It's non-existent. I'm existing. To even prepare a meal brings me to tears. Hearing her. Ask me, Mom, what is for dinner? When are we going to eat? To see her smile, doing her hair. Just asking for money. Any and all the things that's been taken away from me. My beautiful, sweet, sincere, loving, strong, charismatic, protective princess. There is not a moment that you are not in my thoughts in prayers. She has such a strong and beautiful, truthful, brave, fearless personality and energy. And through the most gut-wrenching moment in my life, as I wake and when I sleep and when I try to live, this devastation will never ever leave me. London, your life ending at 17 years old and not being able to experience what this life has had to offer you. In turn, ripping away from all of us that are left here, precious moments like their graduation, your first car, your first child, getting married, going to prom. London, all those things have not been done. All those things have not been done. You have not experienced it, making us here. We will try, try to keep going. And even have the opportunity to argue and fight and then to make it right. London, London, London, London, I miss you so, so much. No one will ever know. But just as we will stand in the light of peace and forgiveness is what the Creator has given me. He's taught me that. And I will apply that to this situation and to every situation to come. No matter what, no matter what, I will always choose to do what is right over what is wrong. No matter who says what and what you judge me on, I will do what I need to do here. The heart to show what you can do with the Creator. And I will end with quotes from Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. The darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. And man must evolve from all human conflict. A method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation for such a method is love. And without Him, I wouldn't be here. Whatever you see is the Creator through me. He is coming through me. There is no way I can work and live and breathe and do anything through this moment without Him. Nothing. And my last is Matthew, chapter 5, verse 44. As it was commanded by Jesus, Love your enemies and pray for those who you persecute. And Romans, chapter 12, verse 19. As the Creator has said, Get His mind to avenge. I will repay. And that's all that I have to say. [00:12:17] Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Miller. Thank you. Through those profound statements. Thank you. [00:12:21] Speaker ?: Thank you. [00:12:21] Speaker 4: Go ahead, Mr. Dugas. I just have a few brief remarks. [00:12:35] Speaker 6: A few brief remarks. A few brief remarks. [00:12:40] Speaker 4: So, Judge, obviously I've been doing this job for some time. I've had a lot of murder cases that I've prosecuted. This case is different than some of the other ones that I've had. To the extent that the defendant's pattern of deception and cold-blooded, cold-heartedness in this case really stands out. 21 days passed from when Ms. Thomas was killed to when her body was discovered. And in those 21 days, the defendant lied to the family of the victim. He lied to the police. He made several videos and posts on social media amplifying false rumors that London was seen alive and that she was still alive. He did that knowing it was false the whole time. He did that to save himself. And he even, during those 21 days, filed a number of calls to the police complaining that he was the victim of some harassment campaign on behalf of the victim's family, who at the time were desperately trying to find out where London was. And based on all the evidence that I've seen in this case, I think the defendant truly believed, and perhaps still believes, that he is actually a victim here, that he has been persecuted by mysterious forces, and that he's not the person at fault here. And what I think that goes to is kind of a cold-blooded, callous, calculated effort on behalf of the defendant, where he was perfectly willing to let London's family go the rest of their lives without knowing whether London was alive or dead, or even give them the courtesy of being allowed to bury her remains. Instead, we only discovered where her body was. It was after efforts were made to destroy the body so that it could never possibly be found. And, you know, I think only a unique type of person can really carry that much weight of basically being willing to lie to the world, Yeah. And to lie to themselves that they're the unfair victim in the case, and that really, you know, it's actually London's fault, and that the family is at fault for trying to find out where she is. I think that ultimately, when the defendant is up for parole in the future, the parole board seriously needs to consider whether somebody who's capable of that type of sociopathic behavior is a danger to others in the community. So ultimately, Your Honor, I would ask the court to adopt a sentence agreement, but I think that this sentence is richly deserved. [00:15:35] Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Grazia. Mr. Clements, and you can come forward with your client. Thank you, sir. You can come to the podium. Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Clements. [00:15:49] Speaker 3: So I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Pentegras a little more than a year ago. It was during the beginning periods of the investigation. I talked with him. I had conversations about the case with him. We reviewed the evidence judge. And from my perspective, once the case was actually charged and the litigation got under underway, we resolved this case pretty seamlessly. And I know that the court knows from looking at the evidence that we were able to present through motions and litigation and things of that nature. There were things that could have been litigated here. There are still questions really that would not have been truly answered without Mr. Pentegras's plea in terms of articulating the circumstances as to how London died, what led up to those events. He took responsibility for his actions. And this isn't a sentencing where I'm standing before the court advocating for Mr. Pentegras to try to justify what he did. It was a terrible thing what he did. He's acknowledged that. He's embraced responsibility for it. There's not really much that we can say in terms of providing an excuse or an explanation for that type of conduct really because there is none. Especially because during the course of their relationship, the two of them developed an affinity for one another, albeit it was an inappropriate relationship given my client's age. The relationship turned violent and it turned tumultuous and Mr. Pentegras did make efforts to try to separate himself from Miss Thomas, albeit unsuccessfully. And when he came in contact with her on the night in question, he continued to make bad decision after bad decision. He's expressed remorse for those decisions when he's spoken to me. When Mr. Pentegras extended the offer, I mean when Mr. Degrassi extended the offer for Mr. Pentegras in this particular case, he accepted it and it was done very seamlessly. There wasn't pushback. He didn't ask me to go back to see could I get less time. He didn't ask me to provide a counter and I don't know that the prosecution would have entertained one. In fact, I believe they said they would not, but nonetheless, he never asked me to either. And there's not a lot of positive things that I can say about Mr. Pentegras as it relates to his conduct here other than the fact that he didn't. It was tough to get through that preliminary exam. The photographs that we would have done a trial in this particular case are gruesome. We recognize that they're gruesome because of my client's actions. But nonetheless, for a family to see the way young Miss Thomas' body decomposed and the way that she looked, that would have been, it would have been required for us to do that to go through a trial. He's spared the family of that. He's embraced responsibility for his actions. And although he is going to exercise his right not to say anything, he did outline a written statement and sign it. And he's embraced full accountability for what he's done. I'm asking the court to adopt the sentencing agreement and close the case out. [00:18:59] Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Clements. Is there anything you'd like to say, sir? No. No? Okay. First of all, I do want to indicate I did receive some beautiful letters as well that were provided to the court about London. And so thank you for that. And for Ms. Bennett and Ms. Bennett and Ms. Martin and the entire, and London's entire family, my heartfelt condolences go out to you for the suffering that you've had to go through. And really that's important to remember this is a day to remember her. You know, the, I never want to have a case where we forget who the true victim in this case is. And London was killed in a brutal way at such a young age. But one thing the court knows, especially after hearing the statement from her mother, Ms. Bennett, her grandmother, Ms. Bennett, and her other grandmother, Ms. Martin, is that a lot of people loved London. And a lot of people here today, who I can tell, loved London. And so thank you for being here, all of you who are in support of London today. And there is really nothing more, based on the statements that were given, that this court can add or detract from that. With regards to the sentence, I will first indicate to Mr. Pendergrass that you may file a claim, you have a, you may file a claim, an application for leave to appeal your, I'm sorry, you may file an application for leave to appeal your conviction and sentence. If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, the court will appoint an attorney and furnish the attorney with the transcripts and file necessary for you to handle your appeal. You will be given credit for the time that you have served in the Wayne County Jail and that is 294 days. There are $68 in state costs, $1,000 in court costs, the crime victims assessment in the amount of $130, and restitution will remain open if there is any. Any issues with that, Mr. DeGrazia? [00:21:18] Speaker 4: I don't have any issues. [00:21:20] Speaker 1: Okay. No objection. Thank you, Mr. Clements and Mr. DeGrazia. The sentence agreement, both parties have asked this court to adopt the sentence agreement in this case. And the sentence agreement is for Mr. Pendergrass to serve a maximum of 50 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections and a minimum of 25 years. I do believe, based on what this court knows, and I appreciate the professionalism and the strong advocacy on behalf of Mr. Clements as well as Mr. DeGrazia for the people. But I do believe that every minute of a 50-year sentence would be deserved in this case. Thank you, everyone. [00:22:02] Speaker ?: Thank you. [00:22:02] Speaker 1: Thank you. [00:22:03] Speaker ?: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [00:22:07] Speaker 1: Thank you. All right. Thank you, everyone. If we can, if we can, we can. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [00:22:14] Speaker ?: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.