'They deserve the death penalty': Egypt Covington's family delivers powerful statements during sentencing
VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (FOX 2) - Egypt Covington's family delivered powerful victim impact statements ahead of sentencing for final suspects convicted of murdering her.
"They deserve the death penalty," said Egypt's father, Chuck Covington.
He acknowledged that he knows Michigan doesn't have the death penalty, and asked that they would get a long sentence.
Shandon Groom and Timothy Moore were in court Thursday after both pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Moore also pleaded guilty to a felony firearm charge.
Judge Wanda Evans sentenced Groom to 17-26 years in prison, while Moore was sentenced to 20-55 years.
A third man, Shane Evans, also took a plea deal in the 2017 murder of Covington. He was sentenced to 15-25 years in May. A fourth individual suspected in the homicide was killed before they could be tried.
Shandon Groom (left) and Timothy Moore (right) during their sentencing on Oct. 5, 2023
"They hogtied my daughter with Christmas lights. They used a pillow, they used a pillow to muffle the sound of the gun. They shot my daughter in the back of the head," Chuck said. "They know what they did. They knew they had a choice, and the choice they made was to kill my daughter execution style."
He argued that the men pleaded guilty because they knew they would be convicted of first-degree premeditated murder if the case went to trial.
"Why bring a gun to make a quick marijuana score? Why bring a gun unless you have some intent to use it?" Chuck said.
Egypt was shot and killed inside her Van Buren Township home in what has been called a robbery gone wrong. Evans previously told the court that the men were trying to break into Covington's neighbor's home to steal weed, but Groom and Moore went into the wrong side of the duplex.
Egypt Covington’s accused killers targeted wrong house, meant to steal marijuana from neighbor
According to court testimony, the men accused of killing Egypt Covington mistakenly broke into her home while trying to steal weed from a neighbor.
After the murder in June 2017, the case went unsolved for years until MSP took over the investigation in August 2020 and arrested the suspects within a few months.
"I stand here so confused because these two monsters went into my sister’s house for no, I don’t want to say no reason, whatever stupid reason, and decided that her life would end that day," her sister Jessica Covington said during sentencing. "They made the decision to never come forward, particularly those, or the person who didn’t pull the trigger decided to never come forward, yet her family has been devastated, changed, split apart, my brain doesn’t even work the same way that it did before."
She went on to ask the court to give Groom and Moore lengthy prison sentences.
"When we know that individuals are so diabolical and evil and subhuman, it does not make sense to me that there is a chance that they will walk amongst the rest of us free," Jessica said. "I ask, and I beg, and I plead that you give them the longest sentence possible that you can."
In addition to urging the court to give the men a maximum sentence, Egypt's family remembered the person she was and mourned the memories she will never make.
"I will never hear her excitedly tell me that I need to hear a new song that she learned to sing," her sister Kaitlyn Covington said.
Egypt was a singer who was known in the area. Her cousin Casey Carson noted how her death impacted not only her family and friends but everyone who knew her.
"Egypt was loved not only by my family but by the entire Belleville community," Carson said.