{"id":186764,"date":"2026-03-11T04:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T04:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186764\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T04:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T04:31:07","slug":"man-gets-life-for-murdering-10-year-old-south-florida-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186764\/","title":{"rendered":"Man gets life for murdering 10-year-old South Florida boy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 More than a decade after a little boy was gunned down during a South Florida robbery, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/2026\/02\/09\/during-sentencing-in-miami-dade-court-father-forgives-man-who-killed-his-son\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/2026\/02\/09\/during-sentencing-in-miami-dade-court-father-forgives-man-who-killed-his-son\/\">his convicted killer<\/a> learned his fate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A judge sentenced Anthawn Ragan to life in prison in the Nov. 22, 2013 killing of 10-year-old Aaron Vu during a robbery at his family\u2019s nail salon near North Miami.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ragan, 31, could have faced the death penalty after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez said Aaron \u201cwas the innocent victim of the wrath and fury of\u201d Ragan, then 18. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">She explained why she felt life was the appropriate sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThough chronologically 18 years old at the time of the crime, (Ragan) was neurodevelopmentally impaired,\u201d she said. \u201cThe court must give consideration and does give consideration to the fact that Anthawn Ragan pled guilty to and accepted responsibility for the killing of Aaron.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ragan trembled as Tinkler Mendez handed down the sentence. Aaron\u2019s mother, Lindsey Vu, wept.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThis was not a client who was deserving of the death penalty, not with his neurological and maturity deficits,\u201d Tony Moss, Ragan\u2019s attorney, said. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful that the judge understood that after reviewing all of the evidence from both sides. I thought it was a well-thought-out decision, well-reasoned, and we are certainly grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Tinkler Mendez told the Vu family, \u201cThis court recognizes that no sentence imposed today can restore what you have lost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hai Vu, Aaron\u2019s father, was also shot that day. He spoke to Local 10 News and other South Florida media outlets following the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2018ve already made amends towards him,\u201d Vu said. \u201cWhen it happened, it was the hardest thing. This is the second hardest thing in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Vu said he is thankful that the legal chapter is over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cAs long as he\u2019s not ever out in public to hurt another innocent person, that\u2019s the main thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 More than a decade after a little boy was gunned down during a South Florida robbery,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-186764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}