In January 2021, Texas rapper Martell DeRouen, known by his stage name Kardone, was killed in his apartment. According to reporting from the San Antonio Express-News, Derouen’s body was found after a close friend requested the police conduct a welfare check. Not long after DeRouen’s killing, police arrested a 21-year-old woman, Sasha Skare, charging her with his murder. In 2019, Skare was also charged with aggravated assault stemming from a shooting of two men in which one man was killed and the other injured.
DeRouen happens to be the cousin of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and during Skare’s trial, which began on Aug. 29, jurors were introduced to a lot of evidence. Jurors were shown a video depicting Skare walking into DeRouen’s apartment, holding a gun in one hand and a phone in the other. The prosecutor also presented audio of a 911 call allegedly placed by Joia DeRouen, the wife of Martell DeRouen. However, DeRouen’s wife said at the trial that the voice on the recording belonged to Skare and not her. She claimed Skare was impersonating her, even giving the 911 operator the wrong information.
DeRouen told the court: “My name starts with a ‘J’ and not a ‘G’. He was not 28, he was 34. Not correct at all.”
According to an affidavit supporting the arrest of Skare, “Witnesses who lived near DeRouen told police they heard him and a woman arguing, but that it stopped when he told her to get out and slammed the apartment door on Jan. 22, 2021. One witness heard banging on the door, then a single gunshot.”
Multiple witnesses who were called to the stand on the first day of the trial were able to corroborate the account in the affidavit.
On Aug. 30, Skare took the stand to give her side of the story.
After her lawyer asked what her intentions were after the gun discharged a round, Skare replied, “My intent was just to get his attention.”
Skare was presented with a plea deal on Aug. 24 but she turned it down in favor of a trial.
A San Antonio jury sentenced Skare on Sept. 1 to serve 55 years for the murder of DeRouen and his sister, Kami DeRouen, read the victim impact statement shortly after the sentence was delivered. “The pain and agony you brought upon my family is unbearable. Fix your sheets, if you have any, because you’ve made your bed and now it’s time for you to lay in it.”
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