Man who admitted to shooting, killing mother of his 2 children in 2020 sentenced to 22 years in prison
The Queens County District Attorney recently released a photo of a towed car that was linked to the murder of Destini Smothers. Kareem Flake, who was responsible for the crime, was sentenced for the heinous act. Along with the photo of the towed car, the DA also released a photo of Smothers from a GoFundMe page and Flake’s mugshot, which was obtained from the NYPD via New York’s WCBS-TV YouTube channel.
According to a news release by the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, Kareem Flake, aged 31, has been sentenced on Thursday after he pleaded guilty in July to manslaughter in the first degree for killing Destini Smothers. Following his release, he will be under five years of post-release supervision.
According to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, the family of Destini Smothers suffered for months due to the heinous actions of a certain individual, leaving her two young children motherless. She expressed her hope that this statement would bring some comfort to the grieving loved ones of Destini.
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Flake was reportedly the last person to see Smothers before she went missing. They were in a car together, celebrating her birthday in Queens, New York, on November 3, 2020. Smothers was reported missing a few days after that.
According to the family’s fundraising page, they are gathering funds to enlist the services of a private investigator in order to find Flake, the last individual to see the victim before her untimely death. Additionally, the raised funds will go towards supporting the family’s two sons, who were 11 and 4 at the time.
According to the site, Flake shared with her family members that she had gotten into a heated dispute and had jumped out of the car in the middle of the night. Since then, she has not seen or heard from the person she had the argument with and is unaware of her current whereabouts.
According to Loretta King, the mother of Smothers, she contacted Flake to inquire about her daughter’s absence from his grandmother’s funeral, as reported by the New York Daily News.
According to the newspaper, King expressed that he was certain that she wouldn’t have missed the funeral and recalled calling Flake’s phone while asking about her whereabouts, saying, “Where your other half at?”
King expressed his disbelief as he recounted the statement given by someone, “Oh, she jumped out of the car mad because she wanted to hang with her friends.” He questioned the plausibility of the situation, “You just telling me she vanished into thin air?”
In March of 2021, Flake’s abandoned Toyota Camry was discovered by a tow truck operator who noticed it had a flat tire. This was four months after her disappearance, and it led to the discovery of her remains.
The District Attorney’s news release stated that he found Smothers’ decaying remains when he opened the car’s trunk to search for a spare.
According to officials, she sustained a gunshot wound to the head.
