ST. LOUIS – The second of two brothers appeared in St. Louis Circuit Court on Monday to be sentenced for the 2022 murder of a man in a dispute over a wayward bottle rocket.
Prosecutors with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office said Davon R. Griffin-Curry, 20, was sentenced to life in prison plus five years for the murder of Rickey J. Lathan.
The murder happened around 11 p.m. on July 12, 2022, in the 2500 block of Semple Avenue, located in the city’s Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood.
Police responded to calls for a shooting and found Lathan lying in front of his home, suffering from multiple gunshots. Lathan was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 35.
After obtaining doorbell camera footage and speaking to witnesses, investigators said Lathan was shot by Davon and Devin Griffin-Curry, who were 18 and 16 at the time of the shooting.
Police said Lathan was setting off fireworks outside his home with his 5-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. A bottle rocket shot across the street and detonated outside a home where Davon and Devin lived with their grandfather.
The brothers ran across the street, began arguing with Lathan, and shot him in front of his children, prosecutors said.
Davon, now 20, was convicted of second-degree murder and armed criminal action last month. Jurors recommended a life sentence on the murder charge and five years for the armed criminal action charge. The circuit court judge accepted the jury’s recommendation, with the sentences running consecutively. In Missouri, a life term is calculated as 30 years.
Devin, now 19, was sentenced in July to 22 years in state prison after being found guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action.