A Northern Kentucky couple has been ordered to serve time in prison for leaving a loaded gun within reach of their young son, who shot and killed his 2-year-old little brother.
Tashaun Adams, 23, the boys’ father, was sentenced in Kenton County Circuit Court on June 29 to five years in prison. The children’s mother, 25-year-old Selena Farrell, was sentenced to seven years.
A jury found both parents guilty of reckless homicide during a trial in April. Farrell was separately convicted of abandoning a minor for leaving the scene after the younger boy was shot.
“There’s a loss of life here … a loss of a very innocent life,” Judge Kathy Lape said before issuing the sentences, which matched a recommendation from the jury.
Both parents were granted credit for the more than two years they’ve spent in jail.
Parents left kids unsupervised for hours before shooting, prosecutor says
On a January afternoon in 2024, the couple’s 3-year-old son got into a drawer where his father was known to sometimes store a loaded handgun, took out the gun and shot his younger brother, 2-year-old Khalil Adams.
The couple and their children were living with Adams’ cousin and a friend at an apartment in Covington. All of the adults were asleep until the afternoon. They awoke to the sound of a gunshot.
Farrell had left by the time police reached the scene. She told investigators that she knew the boy was going to die and wanted to attend his funeral. If she had stayed, Farrell likely would’ve been arrested and booked into jail on an outstanding warrant.
As officers approached the apartment building on Warren Street, they were met by Adams carrying Khalil in his arms. First responders provided medical aid to the toddler in the street until paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital.
“Make no mistake, this is not just a case about a gun,” Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders said in court. “This is a case about two parents that didn’t care for their children.”
Sanders said the children were left unsupervised for hours leading up to the shooting while the parents slept. He also noted that body camera video showed the children’s diapers were overflowing when police arrived at the apartment.
Father previously warned about leaving gun within boys’ reach
Farrell originally bought the handgun from a pawn shop in late 2021, court filings state, two weeks after Khalil was born. She later gave the gun to Adams.
Adams said at trial that his difficult upbringing made him feel it was necessary to carry a gun to protect himself and his family. He sometimes stored it in an unlocked dresser drawer in the same room where his kids slept.
Court records state that authorities twice warned Adams about leaving firearms within reach of his children.
In July 2022, officers were called to Adams’ apartment in Erlanger after someone called 911, reporting that guns were lying out in reach of the kids. Police searched the home and found an unsecured gun in the bedroom. It was the same gun used in Khalil’s shooting death.
Officers were called later that year to investigate a report about Adams filed with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. They arrived with social workers at a home in Florence, where Adams and his sons were staying with a relative, and found a gun on the counter within reach of the older boy.
Adams said he never saw the children attempt to get into the dresser to retrieve his firearm; however, prosecutors argued it was clear that the couple’s older boy knew where it was and how to get to it.
“Daddy’s gun is in the drawer,” the child told police after the shooting.
Attorneys for both parents previously characterized the shooting as a tragic accident.
Katelyn Sanders, Farrell’s attorney, asked the judge to follow the jury’s recommended sentence of seven years, which she described as fair. Adams’ attorney, Joseph Holbrook, requested a prison term less than the five-year maximum.
“He’s gonna live with this forever,” Holbrook said. “There’s probably not a day that passes he doesn’t think about it.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKY parents sentenced after 3-year-old fatally shot brother with unsecured gun
Reporting by Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
