DETROIT – A Detroit man has been sentenced in connection with murdering his friend’s 1-year-old daughter in 2022.
On Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, LeRoy Metoyer III was sentenced to 25 to 50 years for second-degree murder, and 15 to 30 years for first-degree child abuse in the 2022 death of Justice Starks. The sentences will run concurrently, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
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Metoyer was caring for Starks, his friend’s 1-year-old daughter, at a home in the 19200 block of Lancashire Street in Detroit on Nov. 29, 2022, when he assaulted her.
Medics were called, and Starks was taken to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries on Dec. 1, 2022.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner determined that the baby’s cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma to the head.
On Saturday, March 4, 2023, Metoyer was arraigned on felony murder and first-degree child abuse charges and remanded to jail.
A jury trial began in July 2025, but after seven days, Metoyer entered a guilty plea.