Two years after Klorya Matthews died, Valerie Price told a courtroom she saw something of herself in her niece.
Neither had children, but took an extra interest in their nieces and nephews’ lives. Both survived serious car accidents. Price was “so proud of her” — who was “Tete Klorya,” a “positive” and “nurturing” presence for her sisters’ kids.
Price said she looked forward to Klorya maybe becoming a mother herself, something that would never happen. The younger children in the family wouldn’t remember her.
“We were robbed,” she said.
In under 20 minutes, “you threw your life away,” she told Derrick “Teddy” Pouncey.
Judge Salvador Vasquez sentenced Pouncey, 37, of Gary, to 176 years Friday for killing Klorya and her husband Kyle Matthews in April 2024, and paralyzing a third man, Malieke Thomas, 55, who later died.
He indicated he would appeal.
Pouncey “just lost your mind,” the judge later said, of the killings.
Earlier that night, he and Ashley (Price) Pouncey, his then-girlfriend, argued over his talking to another woman at a relative’s party. The situation spiraled into the early morning. The Matthews showed up to get the kids.
More Top Picks Best Hot Swappable Keyboards
A neighbor called the police three times.
Around 3 a.m. on April 10, 2024, Gary Police responded to the scene at the 2000 block of Roosevelt Street, where two people — Kyle and Klorya Matthews, aged 31 and 32, of Hammond — had been shot to death, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Ashley Price was Klorya’s sister. She and Pouncey married in July 2024, after the murders.
Her other sister, Antoinette Taylor, was Thomas’ fiancée. He was paralyzed on the front lawn after engaging in a brief gunfight with Pouncey. He didn’t want her going there alone after he had a recent spat with Pouncey. Thomas died from his injuries on Nov. 18.
Ashley’s three young children were in the house when it all happened.
Upon arrival, police found the front glass door open and shattered, and there was glass everywhere. Near the door, they found Thomas, who was still alive, along with 29 7.62mm caliber casings, five .45mm casings, and a large pool of blood nearby, records state.
Pouncey was convicted of two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of misdemeanor battery and multiple gun enhancements. He was acquitted of two counts of criminal confinement.
He claimed he acted in self-defense, which jurors rejected.
Defense lawyer John Cantrell said Friday there was not much he could say to avoid Pouncey’s life sentence, although Cantrell noted he had a minimal criminal history and was an armed security guard at the time. He asked for a “fair” term.
“He’s going to get over 100 years today,” he said.
Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Lanham, with co-counsel Maureen Koonce, said Pouncey had little remorse. He also had a pending aggravated battery charge against a police officer in Illinois, weeks after the murders.
Thomas, who was a runner, had his life completely upended, going in and out of various hospitals for the rest of his life.
“This actually did kill him,” Lanham said.
Klorya and Kyle Matthews died by an “annihilation” of machine gun fire, the lawyer said.
She asked for 185 years in prison. Lanham speculated Pouncey had some sort of “hold” over Ashley, and it was especially tragic for the older son, a juvenile, who appeared to lie on the stand during trial, possibly after being threatened.
Pouncey’s actions “eventually broke up (this) family,” she said.
In lengthy remarks, Pouncey said the Matthews “pushed” into his home and “attacked” him. He was left “numb” and hadn’t had the chance to “grieve” their deaths, he said.
“We are the real victims,” he said, of himself and his wife Ashley.
As he spoke, one woman appeared to leave the courtroom in disgust.
He apologized to the Price family.
“I lost as well,” he said.
Vasquez said the couple was “executed,” later adding, “there’s no remorse in your statement.”
Valerie Price noted that her sister-in-law, Ashley and Klorya’s mother, tried to keep the family together, but later died of an unrelated cause.
“He took a lot from us,” she said after the hearing.
A family friend, who declined to be named, said the verdict was a chance for a “release” rather than closure. Pouncey was “inhumane,” especially to insist he was the victim, she said.
The children, particularly the older boy, needed an enormous amount of healing after losing his aunt, two uncles, and later his grandmother, the woman said.
When asked, Valerie Price said she didn’t know about Pouncey’s past abuse of Ashley.
More Top Picks Best 50 Inch Tvs
Thomas was a “good guy” and a trucker, she said. Kyle was “soft spoken,” whom she met a few times, but she lit up talking about the couple’s relationship.
Rebecca Alvarez, operations director at Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center, where Kyle worked as an advocate, said after the hearing he was a “unicorn.” He was the only male on staff in her seven years – and helped vulnerable female clients regain some trust in men with a “most gentle” and “caring spirit.”
In a letter submitted to the court, Rebecca Hatfield, Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center’s client services director, wrote that Kyle’s loss was “impossible to fully put into words.”
He was “a compassionate advocate, a protector, a mentor, and a genuinely safe person for countless survivors who depended on him,” she wrote.
He died helping his in-laws, like he helped countless others, she said.
“When he received a call from a survivor needing help, he did what he had always done — he showed up,” she added. To many survivors, he was the “first man who made them feel safe, valued and believed.”
The couple’s love was “visible to everyone,” Hatfield said. “He spoke about her with pride, tenderness and admiration.”
Prosecutors did not file murder charges for Thomas’ death, since his cause and manner of death were still pending when they chose to go to trial. Since then, the Marion County Coroner’s Office said early Friday that Thomas’ death was ruled a homicide due to complications from multiple gunshot wounds.