Wearing a white T-shirt that implored, “Put the guns down,” Kenya Franklin said gang members like the one who shot and killed her son aren’t doing anything but sending themselves to prison.

“I’m just saying stop the violence,” Ms. Franklin, mother of murder victim Michael Macklin, Jr., said Wednesday before her son’s killer, Deontay Smith, was indeed sent to prison.

Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook sentenced Smith to life with a nearly impossible chance for parole.

A jury convicted Smith, 25, of 418 Dexter St. on Dec. 12 of aggravated murder, murder, two counts of felonious assault, discharge of a firearm in public, and participating in a criminal gang.

Judge Cook ordered Smith to spend 11 years in prison for gang and firearm specifications to the aggravated murder charge before serving a life sentence with parole eligibility after 25 years. He then tacked on 54 years for the remaining charges.

“The bottom line, sir, is you’re 25 years old today, correct?” Judge Cook asked Smith. “So you’ll be 36 years old when you begin serving your life sentence. You’ll be 61 years old when you become eligible for parole on count 1. If that were to be granted, you would then begin serving an additional 54-year sentence, making you 115 years old at the youngest age that you could be released.”

Smith, a member of the North Toledo Bloods gang, Stickney 33, followed Mr. Macklin’s car Feb. 2 from a downtown Toledo club and shot him at the intersection of Walden Street and Greenwood Avenue.

Maggie Koch, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, told the court Smith had taken no responsibility for the shooting and had shown no remorse for killing Mr. Macklin, 20, whom she described as “a purely innocent victim.”

Ms. Franklin told the court she had worked hard to keep her son on the right path only to lose him to “some foolish and evil people [who] would follow and shoot” him.

“I have busted my butt to keep my foot on my son’s back to keep him out of that chair right there,” she said. “And I know [Smith’s] mom doesn’t want him in that chair.”

Toledo police Detective Robert Schroeder said after the sentencing that investigators found no motive for the shooting other than what’s becoming all-too-common gang violence.

“This was senseless. This victim was not a gang member. He was working, trying to do the right thing,” he said. “All of the sudden at 1:13 in the morning, a vehicle pulls up next to him and opens fire. There’s no animosity between the two. There’s no grudge that we can find. It’s just senseless, and it’s got to stop.”

He credited the police crime surveillance cameras, which captured Mr. Macklin’s vehicle being followed by a light-colored sport utility vehicle at two intersections, for helping police.

“Best example I’ve got for SkyCop,” Detective Schroeder said. The cameras “identified the vehicle, which led us to the driver, which led us to the shooter.”

Smith’s attorney, Jeffrey Nunnari, said little other than to ask for a sentence “at the low end of the range.”

Asked if he wanted to make a statement, Smith looked down for several seconds then raised his head.

“Trust God,” he said. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Judge Cook also ordered Smith to pay $75,000 in fines and $7,000 in restitution to the victim’s family. At the request of Ms. Franklin, the judge also ordered Smith to serve his sentence in a prison other than Toledo Correctional Institution.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.

First Published January 8, 2015, 5:00 a.m.