PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A young man who admitted to shooting and killing a teenager sitting on her North Philadelphia stoop three years ago was sentenced Friday morning to 15 to 30 years in prison.
Joel Saint-Fort, who was 16 at the time of the fatal shooting, told Judge Scott O’Keefe he was sorry for fatally shooting 19-year-old Yaniyah Foster while she sat outside her home in February 2020.
He said he thinks about it every day. He apologized to her family, who couldn’t be in court for the hearing.
Saint-Fort, now 19, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and conspiracy charges last month.
Foster and a 25-year-old man were both shot in the head. Prosecutors said Saint-Fort and Charles Davis fired about two dozen shots down Thompson Street near 10th Street, across the street from St. Malachy Catholic School.
The 25-year-old man survived.
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Prosecutors showed surveillance video from that day. School let out around 3:30 p.m., and the street was filled with kids — some walking home with their parents, others playing in the street. That’s when two shooters came around the corner and began to fire.
People scattered, but Foster didn’t have a chance to get up. Video showed her immediately slumped over, dead on the doorstep.
The defense noted to the judge that Saint-Fort had taken responsibility from the start, and that his client had significant intellectual disabilities. He was diagnosed with lead poisoning at the age of 3 and had a tough start from kindergarten on.
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His attorney said he was an impressionable 16-year-old who was being guided by an adult.
Davis has also been charged with third-degree murder and is set to stand trial next year.
O’Keefe called the shooting “inexcusable” and sentenced Saint-Fort to 15 to 30 years in prison. He must also pay back funeral expenses to the Foster family.