Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Family members wore white shirts with pictures of Cherokee Soloman Aiko to a Salt Lake City courtroom for the sentencing of the man who pleaded guilty to his murder.
"I'm not sure what hurts worse, the shock of what happened or the ache for what never will," Deanna Aiko said during the Aug. 6 hearing. "Having to learn to live without Cherokee is a lesson I never wanted to learn."
She said her son was a "happy-go-lucky child," and when he got older he was a protector, big brother, jokester and "life of the party." She said he was willing to help anyone if he could.
Cherokee Aiko was shot and killed at Southern X-posure Showclub in South Salt Lake on Dec. 18, 2021. Charges said Cherokee Aiko called his friend's missing phone and someone else answered. He confronted the man he saw had answered the phone, Romalice Latrell Williams, who then pulled out a gun.
"That early December morning that you killed my son, you killed me too," Deanna Aiko told Williams.
Williams, 38, of Salt Lake City, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for murder, a first-degree felony. Third District Judge James Blanch said this is a life sentence, although there is the possibility for parole after 15 years.
Blanch told the victim's family that he hopes that the loss is not debilitating and that, as time goes by, when they think of Cherokee Aiko they will have "warm and happy memories" instead of pain and trauma.
A 'wrecking ball'
Deanna Aiko also told Williams he broke her "once tight-knit family," and ruined their holidays, calling him a "wrecking ball" and a "monster with no remorse."
She said Williams has been charged with 27 offenses since 2017, receiving "slap(s) on the wrist," and was released on an aggravated assault charge one month before killing her son.
"We never asked to be fighters, but your actions put us into this pit of hell and said 'survive,' so that's what we've been doing. We are tired, exhausted, but we will get up and fight every day and we will never give up," she said.
Deanna Aiko ended her comments by addressing her son.
"There will never be a time that I will be done grieving you or learning new ways to somehow exist without you. One day, I will meet you at the crossroads. I'll run into your arms and hold you like the last time I saw you," she said.
Cherokee Aiko's brother, Bryson Olivera, said he was in shock when his father called him and with very soft words told him his brother had died.
"My world stopped with just one phone call. Hearing the details was the most heartbreaking part. Hearing that your brother was murdered is enough to make anyone go mad. A single shot to the chest without any chance of survival, then you shot him again," he told Williams.
Olivera said his brother was his best friend and had "so much more life to live." He said his brother died alone and he wishes he could have been there holding him.
"I wish I could have taken away his pain, and I wish I could have traded places with him," Olivera said.
'I hope you'll forgive me'
Before the sentencing, Williams said he thought when Cherokee Aiko confronted him, Cherokee Aiko was trying to take his phone. He said he was not a cellphone thief but agreed he should not have pulled out the gun.
"I hope you'll forgive me, but if not, I'm still sorry," he said.
Darnell Crandall, Williams' attorney, said his client spent much of his adult life in prison. During the time of the shooting, he was drinking a pint of vodka a day and living in a hotel. Crandall said he went to the nightclub to get away from his struggles.
"Mr. Williams didn't walk into that nightclub to kill anybody, but he did take another person's life," he said.
He said Williams was so intoxicated he just remembers thinking he needed to defend himself and did not know he had shot someone when he left the nightclub. Later, he noticed the phone in his possession was not his, and he heard on the news that someone had died.
"Romalice isn't here today blaming his intoxication that night. He knows that the shooting was not justified. … Today he asks for forgiveness, he's hoping that he can move on, that the family can move on. And he wants everyone here to know from the bottom of his heart, that he's sorry," Crandall said.
Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Karissa McKinney said most of what happened both in and outside the nightclub was on video, and it was "very apparent" that Williams had taken the phone belonging to Cherokee Aiko's friend, and that Cherokee Aiko tried multiple times to retrieve it.
"He lost his life over that, over being a good person and being a good friend," McKinney said.
Williams pleaded guilty on June 6. As a result of a plea deal, multiple charges were dismissed including discharge of a firearm, a first-degree felony; receiving stolen property, a second-degree felony; use of a firearm as a restricted person and drug possession with intent to distribute, both third-degree felonies; and giving a false identity to an officer, a class C misdemeanor.
