She should have been with other teenagers in high school. But instead, 16-year-old Cheyanne Nicole Hair had moved to a small house in Jackson County with a boyfriend more than twice her age.
Within a month, Cheyanne was dead, and Jonathan Michael Smith, then 34, was charged with her murder. On Thursday, Smith was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Jackson County District Attorney's Office.
On Dec. 4, 2013, Cheyanne was rushed to Athens Regional Medical Center, where she died from blunt force trauma. She was pregnant when she was killed, according to investigators.
Smith was found guilty on all charges, including murder, felony murder, feticide, aggravated assault, two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree, sexual exploitation of a minor, family violence and false imprisonment. Smith’s attorney did not return a phone message left Friday afternoon.
“We are all so thankful that it’s over,” Cheyanne’s cousin, Samantha Hadden, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday.
Hadden said she and Cheyanne were more like sisters growing up in south Georgia. But as a teenager, Cheyanne had decided to move to Spalding County to live with her mother, Hadden said. Cheyanne was a long way from home and was soon very different from the bubbly girl usually surrounded by friends and family.
When Cheyanne started dating Smith, Hadden told her she didn’t think it was a good idea for her to date a man so much older. After being together only a few weeks, Cheyanne moved with Smith to a small, white house, just outside of the Jefferson city limits. It was that house where he beat her to death, according to investigators.
After several delays in Smith’s trial, Hadden said her family made the 3½-hour drive from Swainsboro to Jackson County on Monday for jury selection. On the way home, Hadden said she prayed for a rainbow, and that night, she had nightmares about Smith.
On Thursday, her family got the call to return again to court. She left immediately with her mother and uncle, Cheyanne’s father, and got to the courtroom in time to hear Smith take the stand before his sentencing.
“All he talked about was how much he loved her and their unborn child,” Hadden said. “He cried like a baby.”
The trip home was easier late Thursday knowing Smith would spend the rest of his life behind bars, and Hadden said she felt her cousin’s presence.
“A rainbow followed us all the way,” she said.
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