FORT MYERS, Fla. (Court TV) — A judge showed no mercy to a tearful teenager convicted of killing a 15-year-old girl, sentencing him to spend the rest of his life behind bars — plus 45 years.
Thomas Stein speaks at his sentencing on July 10, 2026. (Court TV)
Thomas Stein, 18, was convicted of felony murder with a firearm and three counts of attempted murder in the death of Kayla Rincon-Miller, who was shot to death on March 17, 2024. Rincon-Miller had been out at the movies with two friends when they were randomly targeted by Stein and his friend, Christopher Horne.
At his trial, Stein took the stand and conceded that he had been present at the time of Rincon-Miller’s death, but claimed that others in the car had pulled the trigger and that he never had any intention of hurting anyone. Stein testified at his sentencing on Friday, maintaining his plan that night had only been to steal from cars. “I didn’t know that robbery was going to occur, but it was my reaction in fleeing that ultimately played a major role in assisting the perpetrators,” Stein said Friday. “I know that it wasn’t my intentions, but the truth is it doesn’t change the result. It doesn’t change the fact that there was a life taken and innocent people were forever traumatized because of that. That day I made a terrible decision. The decision to get behind the wheel was a total act of selfishness and something I regret and I’m ashamed of every day.”
Emma Wright, who was with Rincon-Miller that night and testified to the experience at Stein’s trial, said the fallout from the attempted robbery has changed her life. “I have been bullied and discouraged,” she said. “People tried to blame me and my friend Dejaie for this act of violence.”
Louann Dejaie, the third girl victimized that night, said at Friday’s hearing that “I feel like I’m trapped in a coma that I can’t wake up from. Like I’m suffocating, but somehow still expected to keep on living. Losing Kayla changed every part of my life.”
Prosecutors asked Judge Nick Thompson to sentence Stein to the maximum penalty of life in prison, noting that he has a previous record with felony convictions of burglary for previously breaking into cars. “Thomas Stein is the bad influence,” prosecutors said. “He was the driver. He had armed the parties. He was making the rap videos about doing crimes. He was doing all of those things. He’s the one who identified the targets — the girls in this case who were walking down a dark road alone.”
Stein’s defense asked that he be sentenced to only 25 years in prison, in line with how Horne was sentenced. In his statement, Stein didn’t ask for a specific sentence, but asked simply, “If I could just ask you one thing, if before I walk out of the courtroom, if I could give my family a hug, if you’d allow that?”
Thompson immediately said no. “I can’t grant that request in here. You can say goodbye, but you can’t have any physical contact.”
Thompson ultimately sided with prosecutors as he handed down a sentence of life in prison for Rincon-Miller’s murder. Because Stein was only 16 when the crime was committed, he is guaranteed a review of his sentence after 15 years. But Thompson separately sentenced Stein to 15 years, with a 10-year minimum mandatory sentence, on each of the three counts of attempted robbery for which Stein had been convicted — to be served consecutively both to the murder sentence and to each other.
Stein’s attorney, Robert Malove, protested the sentence, saying that even if a court finds that Stein has been rehabilitated after 15 years, he will still have to serve 45 more years. “I’ve thought about it, I’ve considered it, and the sentence the Court’s imposed is what I believe is appropriate under these circumstances,” Thompson responded. “So I will leave it the way I’ve ordered it.”
Stein stopped to speak briefly with his family before being led out of the courtroom to begin serving his sentence.
