Inside a Cook County courtroom on Monday, the man who gunned down beloved South Side dance coach Verndell Smith was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison. Judge and family alike heard how Smith, 32, ran a neighborhood youth dance studio and pushed the slogan "Stop shooting and start dancing" before he was shot to death outside a Dunkin' near King Drive in 2021.
According to ABC7 Chicago, Diontay Kimberly received a life sentence on Monday after being convicted in the May 2021 killing. The outlet notes that Smith was a fixture in the neighborhood, working with children at his studio, and that relatives spoke in court about the hole left in their family and community.
How Detectives Zeroed In On The Shooter
Prosecutors leaned heavily on surveillance and ballistic evidence to build their case, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Video showed a silver SUV pulling into the Dunkin' parking lot in the 7400 block of South King Drive, the driver opening fire, and speeding away. Detectives later pulled footage from a nearby car wash that helped them identify the vehicle and, eventually, Kimberly as the suspect.
After Kimberly was arrested, Smith's sister LaToya struggled to balance relief with grief. "It's also the realization that my brother isn't coming back," she told CBS Chicago. The station reported that officers recovered shell casings at the scene, and that Kimberly was held without bail following his arrest.
Studio Turned Into Sanctuary
Smith's dance studio doubled as a refuge for kids who needed a safe place to go after school, his sister and former students told ABC7 Chicago. They described how he steered young people away from trouble and toward choreography, competitions, and community performances.
Even after his death, dancers kept showing up, rehearsing in his honor and carrying his "Stop shooting and start dancing" message onto stages around the city. For many of them, the studio remained the same safe space he had created, only now with his name invoked at every practice.
Evidence That Anchored The Case
The Chicago Sun-Times detailed how investigators matched distinctive rims and a gold bracelet seen in the Dunkin' surveillance video to footage from the car wash, tightening the circle around Kimberly. Searches also turned up multiple cellphones and a shell casing that prosecutors said linked him to the shooting scene. That combination of physical and video evidence formed the backbone of the case long before the 2025 sentencing.
With the life sentence now in place, Smith's family and former students say one chapter is closed, but the work he started is not. CBS Chicago reported that his sister plans to keep overseeing the studio programs he built so that his message, and his way of keeping kids out of harm's way, reaches the next generation of dancers.
