On the night of March 4, 2017, a burst of gunfire shattered the peace at the intersection of SE 23rd Street and SE Belleview Avenue in Topeka, Kansas. In the aftermath, two vehicles were discovered to have been struck by the hail of bullets. One, a gold Ford Focus, carried 18-year-old Kianna Hodge, a white female, who tragically succumbed to her gunshot wounds.
The other vehicle, a Chevy Traverse, held three other individuals who had also been injured in the shooting.
Law enforcement was first alerted to the sound of gunshots just after 11:30 p.m. Shortly after, they were dispatched to a Reser's Fine Foods location where the Ford Focus with two victims had arrived. It was there that Kianna Hodge was found, having sustained fatal injuries. In total, five people were wounded in the incident, which was perpetrated by a suspect who had fired into the passing vehicles on foot. Investigators at the scene recovered 53 shell casings, all of 7.62 caliber.
For years, the case remained a painful cold case for the Topeka community and Kianna's grieving family. She was remembered as a vibrant and beautiful person who loved to sing and dance and had dreams of attending cosmetology school. A breakthrough in the investigation finally came in 2020. A review of the cold case unearthed new information that led investigators to a suspect: Javon Amond Smith.
In October 2020, 19-year-old Javon A. Smith of Topeka was arrested and charged with the murder of Kianna Hodge. At the time of the shooting, Smith had been a juvenile. He faced a litany of charges, including first-degree murder, criminal discharge of a firearm, and multiple counts of aggravated battery. In October of the following year, Smith pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and criminal discharge of a weapon into an occupied vehicle. In January 2022, Javon Amond Smith, then 20, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the 2017 shooting that ended the life of Kianna Hodge and injured four others.
