FORT SMITH, Ark. — The teen arrested after shooting and killing a woman in a Fort Smith convenience store robbery has pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
Kemuel Mark Andrew Stucki, of Barling, was 15 when he was arrested in 2023 in connection to the convenience store killing of Chanell Moore as well as a separate robbery from December 2022.
During a hearing on April 5, Stucki was sentenced to 50 years in prison. There will be a possibility of parole once he completes at least 70 percent of his sentence.
Additionally, there will be a 20-year suspended sentence. he's ordered not to contact the victim's family and is banned from all Casey's and Doug's Eastside properties.
Fort Smith police say the deadly incident happened at Doug's Eastside Convenience Store on Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith around 10:15 p.m. on March 24, 2023.
Court documents say he engaged in conversation with Moore for several seconds before shooting her at point blank range. She collapsed to the floor, and he shot her again multiple times before getting behind the counter and taking cigarettes and vape products. After his arrest, he confessed to the murder.
Stucki was arrested during a SWAT operation on May 4, 2023. He was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, and terroristic act, according to court documents. He was also charged with aggravated robbery for the 2022 incident. A public defender entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, and a judge set bond at $1.25 million.
The affidavit for Stucki's arrest said that during the 2022 incident, he entered a Barling gas station and demanded the clerk fill a bag with vape pens and signaled he had a gun under his hoodie. After leaving, he reportedly re-entered the store, said he'd pay for the vape pens, and took off his ski mask. However, he then ended up taking four vape pens and walked out without buying them.
Stucki was wearing a black ski mask and a gray hoodie in both incidents. It was through the video surveillance of the December 2022 robbery that police say they were able to identify Stucki as the suspect involved in the homicide at Doug's Eastside Convenience store on Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith.
At the request of his legal counsel, Stucki was psychologically evaluated at least once prior to his sentencing. A report filed in Sebastian County on April 5, just hours before he pleaded guilty, details Stucki’s history of drug use and mental health issues leading up to Chanell’s murder.
The report stems from an evaluation that took place on Feb. 23, 2024, and includes information from a psychological evaluation from September 2023 and police reports related to the murder.
The report says that Stucki told evaluators he had a “normal” childhood. He admitted to using alcohol, marijuana, opioids, cocaine, nicotine, and hallucinogenic mushrooms. He told the evaluator that he had first used marijuana at the age of 13 or 14, and that he believed he was addicted.
Stucki said that the marijuana caused problems in his life, and when asked to describe what he meant, he said “If I never did marijuana I would not be here. I couldn’t control myself whenever I was high,” adding that he would “get angry and break stuff” when he was high, the evaluation report said.
Stucki said that on the day of the murder, he woke up “like it was a normal day.” He smoked marijuana and began “freaking out,” becoming paranoid and believing that police were coming to get him for the December 2022 robbery. The report said he drove to the gas station for nicotine and began panicking, thinking that the attendant was contacting police.
Stucki claimed that he was having auditory hallucinations during the incident, with voices telling him to rob the store and kill Chanell. “I don’t know if it had something to do with the weed I smoked. The voices said ‘shoot, shoot, shoot,’” the report said. He told evaluators that he experienced auditory hallucinations starting at the age of 14 or 15.
In the report, the evaluator was skeptical of Stucki’s hallucination claims, stating that he didn’t mention it until specifically asked.
Court documents say Stucki’s psychological evaluation yielded diagnoses of PTSD, anxiety, major depressive disorder, and ADHD. The evaluation also listed alcohol use disorder, cannabis use disorder, and nicotine use disorder.
The physician conducting the evaluation wrote “It is my opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that at the time of the alleged crime, Mr. Stucki was not suffering from symptoms of a severe mental disease or defect," adding that he "had feelings of excessive guilty about the incident that led to his incarceration."
Moore, a 26-year-old mother of four, was working her shift at Doug's when she was killed.
At a benefit concert for Chanell's children shortly after her untimely death, convenience store owner Doug Schwartz told 5NEWS that the act was "very unusual," adding that it was "a terrible thing and there's no reason for it."
Chanell worked at Doug's Eastside Convenience store for three years and Schwartz said her smile lit up a room.
"Every customer that's ever been in my store just loved everything about Chanell, she was a great employee, she was great to every one of my customers," Schwartz said.
Chanell's family was at the courthouse on April 5 for Stucki's sentencing, providing written impact statements and sharing what Chanell meant to them.
Chanell's father, Charles Moore, wrote that her kids will never be able to hug or kiss their mother again, adding that his heart will have an empty space that will always be there.
Multiple family members also wrote that Chanell's four children are still confused as to why their mother never came home.
Now, their mission is to keep Chanell's memory alive for her kids.
"I hate that her kids won't remember what kind of mom they had, but we will do our best by trying to keep her memory alive. That's our goal, that's our objective, is to get them through it," said Constance Smith, Chanell's aunt.
A tough day in court for everyone involved, but Chanell's family told 5NEWS that they needed to be there to show support for her.
"One of the things that I was telling my brother, you know, we're loving family, and we're forgiving family," Smith said. "And that's what it was all about. Learning to forgive because it's what God would want us to forgive."
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