GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Grand Rapids man was recently charged in a 2020 murder-for-hire plot in Macomb County. But authorities didn't have to look far to find him — he's been behind bars at the Kent County Jail for a separate case since January of last year.
He allegedly shot and killed a Grand Rapids woman in her home a little more than a month after the plot he's now charged for.
“I look at her pictures,” says Felicia Carter, daughter of Sandra Kay Carter. “I try to call her. I can't do that. He took that from me.”
It's a loss that still seems unreal.
“My mom was funny,” says Felicia. “She helped everybody. She will give you the shirt off her back.”
65-year-old Sandra Kay Carter was cooking for her grandkids at her home on the 1200 block of Alpine Avenue in January 2021 when she heard a knock at the door.
“She went to answer the door and he shot her in the face,” Felicia told FOX 17. “He shot her right here, and it went through the back of her head, hit her spinal cord.”
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She died from her injuries the next day. According to the Grand Rapids Police Department, 23-year-old Andre Dimitre Sims was charged with open murder in her death.
Police say Sims was looking for Carter's grandson when the shooting happened.
But adding more to the pain of losing her mom is finding out Sims was recently charged for a November 2020 murder-for-hire plot in Macomb County, months before her mom was killed.
Video shows Sims firing multiple shots at the woman's vehicle. She survived.
Sims faces attempted murder and conspiracy charges for his role in that incident.
“They should've caught him and locked him up right then and there,” says Felicia. “Had he would have been caught before, my mother would have still been alive.”
Now, she's hoping for justice for all families affected by Sims’s actions.
“So I pray he never gets out,” Felicia adds. “Pray he never sees the light of day.”
Sims was offered $10,000 in the alleged murder-for-hire plot. He is expected to be arraigned in Flint on Thursday, April 7.
