DAYTONA BEACH — Nobody saw the 20-year prison sentence coming — not the scared teenage defendant, not her grief-stricken mother, not the stunned defense attorney and presumably not the prosecutor, who waived the minimum sentencing guideline to give the judge more leeway for a lighter penalty.
Ky’Andrea Cook, six months removed from her 18th birthday, is scheduled to spend most of the next two decades of her life in prison, something she thought she’d never have to do for a single day, even after she decided to plead no contest to carjacking and battery charges. Police said she arranged a ruse meeting for sex with an older man knowing it was a setup for a robbery by her boyfriend. A 17-year-old was shot and the gunman has not been caught.
She clung to the possibility of probation, but was blindsided by the judge’s sentence, said her new attorneys, who filed a motion Thursday to withdraw her plea.
“The Defendant maintains that on the date of her plea, she was promised by her legal counsel that she would not receive a state prison sentence.” The motion went on to say that negotiations between the state and defense had yielded probation or house arrest.
The defendant stood helplessly during her hearing Tuesday as her mother collapsed onto the floor in despair. As she continued to weep, her daughter began mirroring her anguish. Both women nearly had to be carried out of the courtroom. Video of their reactions went viral on social media.
Cook was an 11th grader at Mainland High School when she was arrested. The sentence imposed by Circuit Judge Matthew Foxman came as a surprise to her family and friends and raised questions about race, fairness and the future of a teenage girl whose youth evaporated in an instant Tuesday.
