Louisville Bus Stop Killers Face Sentencing, One Got Double the Plea Deal

Two men convicted in the drive-by shooting death of 16-year-old Tyree Smith, who was gunned down while waiting for his school bus in Louisville in September 2021, are set to be formally sentenced Wednesday. Mekhi Cable and Demaurion Moore were found guilty by a jury in June after a trial that laid bare both the forensic case against them and a wrenching account from Smith's grieving family.

A jury convicted Cable and Moore in the deadly 2021 shooting at a Jefferson County Public Schools bus stop, according to WAVE News. The shooting also injured two other students who were waiting alongside Smith near the bus stop that morning. Cable was convicted at trial after rejecting a plea offer against his attorney's recommendation, while Moore had accepted a plea agreement earlier in the case and agreed not to request probation or shock probation.

The gap between those two decisions turned out to be enormous. As WHAS11 reported, Cable had turned down a 30-year plea deal against his attorney's advice, and the jury ultimately recommended a 60-year sentence for him — double what prosecutors had originally offered. Moore, by contrast, accepted a 35-year plea deal that waived his right to appeal and barred him from ever seeking probation or shock probation, and the jury recommended that same 35-year term for him.

A Teenager Waiting for the Bus

Tyree Smith was an 11th-grade junior at Eastern High School who worked three days a week at McDonald's, cut hair, and mowed lawns on the side. Smith's family said he was not a criminal, and by every account he was simply standing at his bus stop when the gunfire erupted.

Smith's fatal shooting on September 22, 2021, marked Louisville's 145th homicide of that year and made him the 21st child to die from violent crime in the city in 2021, per the same statistics reported at the time by WFTV. At the time of the shooting, both Moore and Cable were 15 years old, but both were tried and convicted as adults on murder-related charges.

According to the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, juvenile defendants have challenged statutes that automatically transfer cases to adult court, including Kentucky’s youthful offender transfer statute, KRS 635.020.

Family Testimony and the Case Against Them

During the June trial, Smith's sister testified that she witnessed gunfire coming from two separate weapons during the attack, according to WHAS11's coverage of the proceedings. Their mother recounted receiving a phone call from Smith after he was shot at the bus stop, during which he said he had been shot and needed her to come.

Prosecutors presented evidence against the defendants, as detailed by WDRB. The jury later convicted both defendants.

A third individual, 20-year-old Bryce Chestnut, was separately charged with evidence tampering in connection with the shooting and entered a plea of not guilty, WDRB reported.

Warnings Before the Shooting, and a Co-Defendant's Troubled Record

The bus stop was located near the intersection of Chestnut Street and Dr. W.J. Hodge Street. Before the fatal shooting, Jefferson County Public Schools had already notified parents about a separate shots-fired incident near that same bus stop, prompting earlier community requests to have the stop relocated, according to WDRB's reporting from September 2021.

According to Jefferson County Public Schools’ Board Policy 06.5, bus stops are one mile or less for middle and high school students and half a mile or less for elementary students. According to Jefferson County Public Schools’ Bus Safety guidance, a principal makes a request to the appropriate zone assistant superintendent, who reviews relevant information and provides final approval or disapproval.

Moore was already serving a 22-year prison sentence for rape committed during a November 2022 riot at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center. On June 12, the same day the jury issued its sentencing recommendation in Smith's killing, Moore was charged with promoting contraband and drug trafficking after jail officers discovered 40 Suboxone strips in his cell, WHAS11 reported.

Cable and Moore are scheduled to be formally sentenced Wednesday in Louisville, where a judge will decide whether to adopt the jury's recommendations of 60 years for Cable and 35 years for Moore.