SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP (HAMILTON COUNTY), Ohio -- When Layota Williams saw Rico Mosley's mugshot, she began to cry.
Mosley was arrested Friday and charged in the death of Kelsie Crow, who died after she was shot outside a Sweet 16 birthday party a year ago. Mosley, now 19, is charged with murder and two counts of felonious assault.
Williams was on a trip to Atlanta with her daughter when a friend texted them Mosley's photo. She'd seen him before, she said: Her daughter, Nyasia, grew up with him.
Rico Mosley
And Nyasia was one of two other people wounded by the gunfire outside the Sweet 16 party. She'd stepped outside to make a phone call, Williams said, when she heard gunfire. Nyasia Williams ran, and a bullet hit her in the back, her mother said. She nearly died.
Mosley wanted to be a basketball star and made the honor roll, Williams said. She and her daughter knew him from birthday parties, movies and other childhood milestones; she called him "polite, respectful ... a down-to-earth kid." Their families, she said, have known each other for generations through their church.
"I want him to talk, because it's not like I don't know this kid, and that's what's bothering me the most," Williams said.
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Mosley's attorney, Clyde Bennett, called the charges against his client a rush to place blame. A judge set Mosley's bond at $800,000.
Nyasia Williams' recovery has taken time, her mother said, and the violence has taken a toll.
"I can barely even get her to go to the movies, sometimes out to eat with her friends," Williams said.
