Stein sentenced to life
One of the teens convicted in the death of 15-year-old Kayla Rincon Miller was sentenced to life in prison Friday.
Thomas Roy Stein, 18, was sentenced to life for first-degree felony murder in the March 17, 2024 shooting. Stein also was sentenced to 15 years for three counts of attempted robbery with a firearm. The sentences will run consecutively.
Stein was convicted in May following a jury trial in Fort Myers.
Earlier this year, the State Attorney’s Office direct filed the case against Stein and co-defendant
Christopher Horne Jr., which took the cases from juvenile court and into adult court.
“This allowed for adult sanctions in the case,” SAO officials stated in a release. “State Attorney Amira Fox then convened the Lee County Grand Jury and they returned indictments against then 16-year-old Stein and 16-year-old Horne, Jr., both for First Degree Felony Murder.”
Horne accepted plea agreement a condition of which was to testify truthfully against his co-defendant if called as a witness, according to the SAO. In May, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
According to the State Attorney’s Office, on the night of the murder, Stein, armed with a gun, took an SUV his mother had rented, and used it to pick up a friend to commit a crime or crimes.
“They first drove through the parking lot of a North Fort Myers movie theater attempting to burglarize cars,” a release from the SAO stated. “They then drove to a Cape Coral movie theater but after driving through the parking lot, considered robbing someone at a nearby bank ATM. It was then that they saw the trio of girls walking and decided to rob them.
“The victim and her friends were walking to get food after watching a movie at the theater. They were walking along a road adjacent to Del Prado. An SUV drove by and then circled back and drove by again.
“The driver, the defendant, flashed the high beams into the girls’ faces and stopped the vehicle in front of them.
“Moments later a gun went off, with the bullet going into the chest of the victim, at close range. The defendant fled the scene along with his co-defendant as the victim’s friends, also victims of the attempted robbery, tried to save her life. A Cape Coral Police Officer arrived on scene in minutes and also tried to save the victim’s life. The victim was able to speak at first and told the officer she did not know the person who shot her. She died a short time later at a local hospital.”
Assistant State Attorney Sara Miller of the State Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit and Assistant State
Attorney Alyssa Wolf prosecuted the case.
The Cape Coral Police Department conducted the investigation.