Canton judge to Halloween party shooter: 'You wasted 10 of the best years of your life.'

CANTON ‒ Since being shot in the face at a Halloween party on Oct. 22, Tariyah Robinson has struggled with jaw fractures, tooth loss, permanent scars, being fed through a tube, dying and coming back to life.

And when she faced the woman who shot her, she had this to say:

“I just want to say that I forgive. I don’t hate. I've never been a hateful person. And I pray that God has mercy on your soul because I do."

Robinson said she struggles with the effects of the shooting that occurred at a home in the 2900 block of 15th Street NW in Canton Township.

"I still have a lot of work to do as far as being out in public, not being anxious everywhere I go, the post-traumatic stress and not being able to sleep at night because that's the time of day that I got shot."

Robinson spoke Tuesday before Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank G. Forchione sentenced Grace N. DeWalt to 10 to 13.5 years in prison for attempted murder, felonious assault and specifications that a gun was used in both crimes.

Dewalt, a 21-year-old Massillon resident and graduate of North Canton's Hoover High School, will spend two to five years on parole following her release from prison.

Sheriff George T. Maier has said the defendant was believed to have been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime. Maier said that after a fight broke out in the home, DeWalt went to a nearby vehicle, got a gun and shot the other woman on the patio. Deputies responded at 2 a.m.

A grandfather speaks about grace and Grace

The victim's grandfather indicated in court that the violence occurred as Tariyah was trying to keep somebody from bothering somebody else. He said she wasn’t bothering anybody, and only tried to defend herself because she was approached physically.

“Try to keep trouble from happening, and then trouble happens to you," Rev. Howard Robinson Jr. said.

He marvelled at the speech she gave at the sentencing hearing.

“She probably should have been the preacher or pastor," he said. "In our family, she's that calming spirit. She’s the flower that spreads the pollen for the rest of us to flourish."

Robinson said he cannot count the number of lives disrupted by the shooting, nor can he explain the pain felt across the U.S. by those who love Tariyah.

“Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It’s what we get that we don’t deserve," the pastor said. "That’s transpiring here today. Two people got, and are getting, what they don’t deserve. Tariyah didn’t deserve to be shot. (DeWalt) had time not to shoot her. She left out of a door and came back in and shot her."

He said that as a grandfather, he believes DeWalt deserves a longer sentence.

"As a pastor, I have to forgive. But I don’t have to accept what I know is terribly wrong,” Robinson said. He said he was once sentenced to one to 10 years in prison “for just having a pistol.”

Robinson said his family, like DeWalt, are North Canton people as well.

”I know the community. I know what they poured into you,” the pastor said.

DeWalt played softball at Hoover. She told Forchione that she was a state-tested nursing assistant who studied nursing at Ashland University on a scholarship, then studied in the same field at Stark State College in Jackson Township.

Great aunt says shooter's friends were 'devils in disguise'

Tariyah's great aunt, Anita Robinson Muhammad, said DeWalt “had a caring family. She had somebody to put time and money into her.”

“I feel sorry for you because I know you allowed some people in your head that didn’t even really know you," she said. "You allowed them to change who your parents groomed you to be. Do you know how much hard work goes into a parent grooming a child to do the right thing in the community? It’s time, money, love, heartache, pain. The pain is unbearable.”

She said peer pressure from DeWalt's friends led to the shooting.

“Those were not your friends. They were your devils in disguise,” Robinson Muhammad said.

She expressed hope that the defendant's mother, Karrie DeWalt, would have the strength to raise the perpetrator's young son, but get a different result than she did with her daughter.

Defendant's mother says daughter is beautiful person

Karrie DeWalt apologized to the victim and her family.

"As a mother, I can't even imagine the fear and pain you must have felt. I don't know the circumstances of what happened that night, but what I do know is the total shock that I have felt since this has happened.

"I am so sorry that this is all you know of my daughter. The Grace I know, says, 'I love you' five times before she walks out the door. The Grace I know and love is a beautiful person. I know she regrets and replays that night every day since it happened and wishes she could have made different choices," Karrie DeWalt said.

Defense attorney Jacob Will said his client expressed to him “deep remorse” for her actions.

“Obviously, Grace wishes she could undo what she did," he said. "We express our sympathies to the Robinson family because this clearly has irreparably harmed their family."

He asked the judge to impose the sentence recommended as part of the plea agreement that included DeWalt pleading guilty to the criminal charges and gun specifications.

Forchione judge followed the sentencing recommendation.

Judge: "You wasted 10 of the best years of your life"

“You wasted 10 of the best years of your life,” he told Grace DeWalt. “This whole courtroom is full of sadness today. I see a family out there whose hearts are broken.

"This is a lesson to young people that one bad decision, in one small second, you’ve destroyed your life and you’ve destroyed the life of your son. Someone else is going to have to raise him. Someone else is going to have to hug him. Someone else is going to have to wipe his tears away."

Forchione said DeWalt's son's only worry this week should have been, "Is Santa Claus coming?" not, "Will my mom be going to prison?’”

The judge said the community has too much violence and too many guns.

"I really don’t know what to do to get this message across," Forchione said. "Young people are throwing their lives away over the stupidest things and it’s just not getting any better. Why anybody would take a loaded gun to a Halloween party just makes absolutely no sense to me. This isn't the wild west."

To DeWalt he said, "You weren’t raised like that. I just don’t know how you could have been that selfish that night.”

Tariyah Robinson expressed the hope that in the future, the kind of injury that she suffered won’t happen to anybody again.

Her great aunt told the judge that she prayed before she went out on the night she was shot.

“I know she was covered." Robinson Muhammad said. "I know she’s here for a reason. She’s here for an amazing reason.”

Attempted murder: Massillon woman, 21, pleads not guilty to charge of attempted murder at Halloween party

Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or nancy.molnar@cantonrep.com.On X, formerly known as Twitter: @nmolnarTR

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Grace DeWalt sent to prison for shooting Tariyah Robinson at party