Debbie Jefferson died of cancer four months ago, but on Monday her scalding words still poured out in a courtroom against the man who killed her 17-year-old pregnant daughter and left the unborn child unable to see, talk, walk or breathe on his own. 
 
 "I watched you during the trial and you showed no remorse. So maybe you wouldn't know how I feel," Jefferson told Timothy Jones, 23, in a statement read by a prosecutor. "From this day forward, when you open and close your mouth and eyes, and you are still able to walk and talk, stop and take a minute and think about the lives you destroyed. 
 
 "All of your sleepless nights and dreary days, I pray you ask God for forgiveness and to have mercy on your soul," the statement added. 
 
 Before the trial began for Timothy Jones, Debbie Jefferson, the grandmother of Charinez Jefferson, talked about raising Charinez's brain-damaged child born after the 17-year-old mother was fatally shot. Sept. 24, 2014. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) Before the trial began for Timothy Jones, Debbie Jefferson, the grandmother of Charinez Jefferson, talked about raising Charinez's brain-damaged child born after the 17-year-old mother was fatally shot. Sept. 24, 2014. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 After hearing the statement, and one from an aunt, the judge sentenced Jones to 90 years in prison for the death of Charinez Jefferson nearly five years ago. 
 
 Prosecutors say Jones was angry after he was shot in the thigh earlier in the day in August of 2011. He later spotted a rival gang member walking with Jefferson to a Marquette Park corner store and fired twice at him and missed, prosecutors said. 
 
 Jones then shot Jefferson eight times at point-blank range as she pleaded for her life, according to a witness and prosecutors. 
 
 "She kept begging for her life, and he still shot her," a witness, Romell VanTrease, 31, testified during the trial. "She begged for her life ... said, 'I'm pregnant.' " 
 
 Doctors couldn't save Jefferson's life but successfully delivered her son, though he was severely brain-damaged after being deprived of oxygen. His skull was also fractured when his mother collapsed to the street. 
 
 In an interview with the Tribune in 2014, Jefferson said doctors told her the boy -- named Kahmani -- would remain in a persistent vegetative state, unable to see, hear or breathe on his own. Jefferson said they eventually urged her to remove him from life support, telling her his condition would never improve. 
 
 But she decided against it. "I couldn't see turning the machine off on him," she told the Tribune. "Who am I to judge whether he lives or dies, OK? I was just grateful that he's still here." 
 
 In her impact statement, drawn up before she died in February, Jefferson spoke of both Kahmani and Jefferson's first son. 
 
 "Maybe with one more shot, you would have taken his life too," she said. "It's kind of sad when his brother asks, 'Grandma, when is he going to get out of bed and play with me?' You not only took my daughter's life, you basically took his life too. I pray every day that God shows him favor and that one day he will be able to enjoy some parts of life." 
 
 Still, Jefferson said she "had to find a way in my heart to forgive you ... I had to let go of anger, resentment, bitterness and hatred." 
 
 But an aunt, Betty Lee, told the judge she has been unable to forgive Jones. "I can barely close my eyes some nights without seeing my niece's body on that morgue table, bullet wounds from toe to head and for that I don't think I will ever be able to forgive you," Lee said in court Monday. 
 
 "I hope the night of Aug. 16, 2011, haunts you in the midnight hour, as it has done me night after night, although I doubt it will," she continued. "Wherever you end up, I'm sure you'll get visits, you'll even be able to make phone calls to your family, so yeah, you still come out on top. That's not the case for us: no calls to Charinez, no laughing with Charinez, no parties with Charinez and no holidays with Charinez." ||||| Prosecutors: Pregnant teen begged for her life before gunman shot her 
 
 Despite her plea, Timothy Jones, 18, opened fire on Jefferson anyway, yelling an expletive at her as he shot her in the head, prosecutors said. He then stood over her as she lay on the ground and fired several more times, striking her in the chest and back. 
 
 Moments before she was slain last week on Chicago's Southwest Side, 17-year-old Charinez Jefferson begged the gunman not to shoot because she was pregnant, prosecutors said today. 
 
 Friends of Charinez Jefferson, 17, who was shot and killed while walking with a group of friends on the 3000 block of West 64th Street, put up a memorial at the shooting site the day after the shooting. (William DeShazer, Chicago Tribune) 
 
 
 
 Jefferson was pronounced dead a short time later, but doctors were able to successfully deliver her baby boy, who remained in critical condition today, Assistant State's Attorney John Dillon said. 
 
 "Tests are expected to be performed to determine whether the child has any brain activity, as there are concerns over the child possibly suffering from oxygen deprivation after the victim had been shot," Dillon told Judge Laura Sullivan. 
 
 Sullivan denied bond for Jones, 18, who was charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 16 slaying. 
 
 “I’m happy that he’s been caught before we even put her in the ground,” said Jefferson’s aunt, Devorah Hope. “This young man sent a message on the streets that an unarmed pregnant woman that’s not violent to nobody, it’s not safe.” 
 
 Jones had seen Jefferson walking with a rival gang member in the 3000 block of West 64th Street and approached them in a car, Dillon said. He got out of the vehicle and fired at least one shot at the rival, who ran off, leaving Jefferson to fend for herself. After begging Jones for mercy, Jefferson was shot at "point-blank range," Dillon said. 
 
 Jones, of the 6300 block of South Rockwell Street, was arrested at his home Saturday after numerous witnesses identified him as the killer, according to information from prosecutors and court documents. 
 
 A police source said that Jones was a "stick-up man" well known to area police. 
 
 At the time of the shooting, Jones was serving 2 years of probation for a 2010 burglary conviction, Dillon said. He also has a "lengthy" juvenile record, including convictions for unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and burglary, Dillon said. 
 
 Outside court, Jones' family members denied he is a gang member and said he could not be involved in Jefferson's murder because he has had trouble walking since being shot in the leg a few weeks ago. 
 
 "My condolences go out to the young lady and her family, but we know 100 percent that they got the wrong guy," said Jones' cousin, Stanley Jones, 36. "He can barely walk." 
 
 Courtroom personnel and deputies in charge of Jones in the lockup said he did not appear to be limping or request any walking aides such as crutches or a wheelchair. 
 
 Hope said that she pledged to attend every court hearing for her niece, though she could not bring herself to go inside the courtroom on Monday. ||||| Man gets 90 years for murder of pregnant 17-year-old girl 
 
 A gang member was sentenced Monday to 90 years in prison for the murder of a 17-year-old pregnant girl in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the Southwest Side nearly five years ago. 
 
 Timothy Jones, 23, was previously convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. 
 
 On Aug. 16, 2011, Jones, a member of the Rockwell Boys gang, was in REC City territory when he saw the girl and her male friend walking in the 3000 block of West 64th Street, prosecutors said. 
 
 Jones approached the two and fired twice at the man, who was a rival gang member, prosecutors said. He was not hit and ran away, so Jones opened fire on the girl. 
 
 Charinez Jefferson, 17, was shot in the foot, ankle, thigh, buttock, chest and neck, prosecutors said. She was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where doctors were able to deliver her baby after emergency surgery. Jefferson died immediately after the baby was born. 
 
 The infant remains on a ventilator and is fully incapacitated, prosecutors said. Doctors indicate the child’s condition is unlikely to improve. 
 
 On Monday, Judge Nicholas Ford sentenced Jones to 90 years in prison. ||||| Sunlight fills Kahmani Jefferson's bedroom, illuminating the stuffed animals hung above his bed and along the walls. 
 
 A Nick Jr. cartoon plays on a small television, but Kahmani's eyes remain closed, his body motionless. His grandmother leans in and whispers in his ear. 
 
 "Hey, my love," she says. "Hey, my love." 
 
 The 3-year-old boy's eyelids flutter open as she speaks. The tiny reaction helps sustain Debbie Jefferson three years after gun violence on Chicago's streets thrust both a tremendous loss and a heart-wrenching decision on her. 
 
 Her 17-year-old daughter, Charinez Jefferson, was about eight months pregnant when she was shot in August 2011 while walking near her home in the Marquette Park neighborhood. Doctors couldn't save Charinez Jefferson's life but successfully delivered Kahmani, though he was severely brain-damaged after being deprived of oxygen. His skull was also fractured when his mother collapsed to the street. 
 
 Timothy Jones, a reputed gang member who was charged in the killing, was set to go on trial at the Leighton Criminal Court Building last week, but the court proceeding — and the answers that Debbie Jefferson hoped it would bring — were again delayed. 
 
 Family photo Charinez Jefferson, 17, was shot and killed while walking with a group of friends on the 3000 block of West 64th Street. She was 8 months pregnant. The baby was saved but had severe brain damage. Charinez Jefferson, 17, was shot and killed while walking with a group of friends on the 3000 block of West 64th Street. She was 8 months pregnant. The baby was saved but had severe brain damage. (Family photo) 
 
 "I just really want to know, what did she do? What was your reason why you really wanted to shoot her as well as injure my unborn grandchild? ... Why did it have to happen?" she said. "I'm trying to really put it behind me so I can move on for the boys." 
 
 To Jefferson, the baby looked just like her daughter — her face, her color, her hands. But doctors told her Kahmani would remain in a persistent vegetative state, unable to see, hear or breathe on his own. Jefferson said they eventually urged her to remove him from life support, telling her his condition would never improve. 
 
 Weeks later, she set the date to pull the plug — Oct. 20, 2011, what would have been her daughter's 18th birthday. But she had a change of heart as she entered Advocate Christ Medical Center that day. 
 
 "I couldn't see turning the machine off on him," Jefferson said tearfully. "Who am I to judge whether he lives or dies, OK?" 
 
 "I think at (the hospital) a lot of them were kind of disappointed with me because they thought actually I was going to turn the machine off," she said while sitting next to her grandson in his wheelchair. "But my faith didn't allow me to do it." 
 
 The last two years haven't been any easier. Kahmani was in a succession of hospitals before he was able to join his grandmother in her Englewood neighborhood home last September. 
 
 Jefferson, 55, is also raising Kahmani's older brother, Kamarrea, an active, curious 4-year-old who sometimes has to be shooed away from the medical equipment around Kahmani's bed and has struggled with the loss of his mother. 
 
 "It took him a long time to adjust to not seeing her," she said of Kamarrea. "Every time the door would open, he just knew it had to be her coming in, but it wasn't." 
 
 To celebrate Kahmani's third birthday last month, Jefferson threw a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles party complete with cake, a bounce house and character masks for the kids. 
 
 His older brother blew out the candles for him, but Jefferson was happy that Kahmani was able to be seated in a wheelchair. Doctors had said he would never be able to sit upright without his oxygen levels dipping dangerously low. 
 
 Since her daughter's death, Jefferson had put money away for a headstone, a memorial that was installed in July at her grave at Oakridge Glen Oaks Cemetery in west suburban Hillside. The marker displays a smiling photo of Charinez Jefferson, with the words "beloved mother and sister" and the phrase "too well loved to be forgotten." 
 
 "When I went back to the cemetery, it was like day one, burying her," she said. "It was hard." 
 
 Jefferson said she felt the memorial would be particularly important for Kamarrea. 
 
 "As he grows ... he can understand what death really is," she said. "He can go out there and he can see a picture of his mother on the headstone and put it all together." 
 
 Kamarrea, then just 1, spent much of his mother's last day alive with her in Marquette Park before the two returned home to the apartment they shared with Jefferson. Later that night, Jefferson's daughter went out alone. 
 
 At about 10:30 p.m., moments before she heard the gunshots, Jefferson had called her daughter and learned she was almost home. "Here I come, mama," Jefferson recalled her daughter say. They were the last words she would hear her daughter speak. 
 
 Charinez Jefferson was walking with a friend around the corner when a reputed gang member fired a least one shot at the friend, a rival gang member who ran off, Cook County prosecutors have said. 
 
 Jefferson begged the gunman to spare her because she was pregnant, according to prosecutors. Instead, the gunman swore at her and shot her in the head. He then stood over her as she lay on the ground and shot her several more times, prosecutors said. 
 
 Jones, then 18, was arrested four days later and charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held in Cook County Jail. 
 
 With Kahmani at home for the last year, two nurses — including Harrianette Fly, who sometimes plays classical music for the child — provide care while Debbie Jefferson fills in during gaps in their shifts. Most nights, she cooks dinner for Kamarrea while her younger grandson, who is fed through a stomach tube, is kept in his bedroom. 
 
 As if life isn't already challenging, Jefferson continues to fight bone cancer. When she feels overwhelmed, she tries to find time to sit through one or even two services at her church, gathering strength from her faith. Her next goal is to find a van so she can take Kahmani to church with her. 
 
 "I was just grateful that he's still here," she said. "He may not be whole or he may not do everything that a 3-year-old would do, but I love him. That's my grandbaby." 
 
 sschmadeke@tribune.com 
 
 Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
– On Monday, a judge sentenced Chicagoan Timothy Jones, 23, to 90 years in prison for the 2011 death of a pregnant 17-year-old. But other sentences from that day were just as impactful: those of victim Charinez Jefferson's mother, Debbie Jefferson, who lost her life to bone cancer in February and whose deathbed message to Jones was read by a prosecutor, reports the Chicago Tribune. "I watched you during the trial and you showed no remorse," said Jefferson. "So maybe you wouldn't know how I feel. From this day forward, when you open and close your mouth and eyes, and you are still able to walk and talk, stop and take a minute and think about the lives you destroyed." Charinez, who was eight months pregnant, isn't the only one unable to walk and talk in the aftermath of Jones' crime: Her unborn son Kahmani was saved, but he exists in a vegetative state. Jefferson called Charinez as she was walking home from a corner store with a male friend in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on Aug. 16, 2011. "Here I come, Mama," Jefferson recalled her saying, reports the Tribune. Minutes later, Jones fired two shots at the man, a member of a rival gang. The intended victim ran, so Jones turned to Charinez, shooting her eight times: in the foot, ankle, thigh, buttock, chest, and neck, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. A witness testified that she begged Jones to spare her and her unborn child; instead, he shouted an expletive at her, reports the Tribune. Kahmani's brain was deprived of oxygen, and his skull was fractured as Charinez fell to the ground. Said Jefferson, "All of your sleepless nights and dreary days, I pray you ask God for forgiveness and to have mercy on your soul."