In the late hours of a warm summer evening on August 3, 2019, the life of 18-year-old Ke'Ovion Markel Seay Tevis was tragically cut short in his hometown of Covington, Kentucky. A recent graduate of Holmes High School, Ke'Ovion, known to many as 'Keeter,' was a young man with a future ahead of him, working for the City of Covington as a lifeguard at one of its public swimming pools.
That night, however, in the parking lot of the River's Edge at Eastside Pointe apartments on Greenup Street, he was met with fatal violence.
Around 10:00 p.m., Covington Police were dispatched to the scene following reports of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they discovered Ke'Ovion suffering from a gunshot wound to his head. He was quickly transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital, but his injuries proved too severe, and he succumbed to them. The community, particularly those who knew him from his work at the pool where he helped keep younger children safe, was left heartbroken by the devastating loss of a young life.
The investigation into Ke'Ovion's death led by the Covington Police Department soon focused on two individuals. In November 2019, a Kenton County Grand Jury returned indictments against two sixteen-year-old juveniles from the neighboring city of Newport. Brandon M. Hambrick and Deangelo Smith-Jones were each charged with a single count of Complicity to Murder. Due to the gravity of the crime and the use of a firearm, the law dictated that both teenagers would be tried as adults.
The case against Hambrick and Smith-Jones proceeded through the Kenton County judicial system. The charge of Complicity to Murder carried with it the potential for a lengthy prison sentence, ranging from twenty to fifty years, or even life imprisonment. The arraignment for the two suspects was scheduled for November 18, 2019, marking the next step in the legal process to bring justice for Ke'Ovion Markel Seay Tevis and his grieving family and friends.
