Teen sentenced to 75 years for killing half brother

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) —Two families came to Allen Superior Court Friday morning, intertwined and forever joined through blood and tears.

One father, two sons, two different mothers.

One son killed by the other, and for that, the other son was sentenced to 75 years in prison by Allen Superior Court Judge David Zent.

Zent said 19-year-old Leland Hairston did not rise to the level of the “worst of the worst” so he couldn’t legally sentence him to the maximum 85 years he faced in the killing of his half-brother, 21-year-old Divoryan Warren-Hill.

Hairston was accused of shooting Warren-Hill a few days before Feb. 26.

Investigators found Warren-Hill’s body hidden in a basement, covered up with carpet and a blue chair. He’d been shot multiple times, stabbed in the neck and suffered blunt force trauma, according to Allen Superior Court documents.

No one knows what prompted the killing as the two brothers were close when they were younger and stayed in touch as they got older. They played video games together and Divoryan protected his younger brother, family said.

But Hairston’s mother, Tiarra Hairston, and Mary Hill, grandmother to both the defendant and victim, said there were mental issues that weren’t dealt with.

Tiarra Hairston partly blamed herself for being so hard on her son and trying to provide for her family after her son’s father, Ivory Hill, went to prison for 14 years.

Leland went from “a sweet little kid to angry,” every time he was at ACJC (Allen County Juvenile Center.) When she asked for help for his mental health issues, help never came. During the trial in mid-July, she said she suffered a small stroke as she sat in court and another bout with cancer returned.

“There are two sides to every story,” Mary Hill said. “God put us here to love one another.”

Yes, her grandson needed help and he’d taken a different path, but her fear was he would be forgotten.

“I don’t want to see him just thrown away like an animal in a cage. He needs help,” Mary Hill said.

There was no quarter from the family of the victim. Anastacia Abercrombie, mother of Divoryan’s 2-year-old daughter, Dior Warren-Hill, had to control her tears as she told the judge her daughter would never see her father again.

Every morning, though, Dior “goes over to his photo and gives him a kiss,” Abercrombie said.

E.J. Wright, Warren-Hill’s cousin, stood at the mic to say he believed in forgiveness, but he also “believed in truth and honor. I still don’t know why he did this.”

Warren-Hill’s mother, Danisha Warren, blamed the act on jealousy, but said Hairston “had no reason” to do this and was a reminder “that evil does exist.”

Danisha Warren’s daughter, Dachena Warren-Hill, was shot and killed by Officer Mark Guzman of the Fort Wayne Police Department in November. The family disputes the police version of events that led to that shooting.

Divoryan’s families all wore T-shirts with his photographic likeness on them and underneath, a T-shirt for Dachena.

“He (Warren-Hill) gave you a place to lay your head,” Ivory Hill said to his son, who sat next to his attorney, Jerad Marks. “We lost a sister already a few months before,” referring to Dachena.

“I will always be a father and I love you,” Ivory Hill said.

There were several people who were too overcome to speak, but when it came time for Hairston to say a few words, he spoke in single sentences, broken by pauses.

“I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad,” he said. In other single sentences, he apologized for what happened and he would pray for Danisha.

But then he reversed.

“Somebody else did it,” Hairston said.

“You’re a liar,” Danisha cried from the front row of the gallery and then added an expletive. “You killed my son!”

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