A Chicago man who was wearing an ankle monitor for a pending sexual assault case when his 13-year-old nephew accidentally shot himself to death while handling a gun in his home has been given a 10-year sentence, court records show.
After the March 24, 2025 shooting, Kemonte Rice, still wearing the ankle monitor, left his home before an ambulance arrived, went to his mother’s house and hid the firearm under a mattress, prosecutors said.
Kemonte Rice, 26, was on electronic monitoring because Judge Ankur Srivastava had refused to detain him after prosecutors accused him in October 2024 of forcing a woman to have sex at gunpoint.
According to prosecutors, Rice and the woman were engaged in consensual relations when she told him to stop because she needed to attend a birthday party. Instead, prosecutors alleged, Rice forced her to continue. While positioned on top of Rice with her back turned, the woman texted her sister to alert police, saying a man was sexually assaulting her at gunpoint, prosecutors told Srivastava. Chicago police arrived and took Rice into custody.
Nearly six months later, around 5 p.m. on March 24, 2025, 13-year-old Tawon Tribble Jr. went to Rice’s home in the 500 block of West 65th Street to hang out with his uncle, something the two did frequently. They spent just over an hour together in Rice’s bedroom while other adults were elsewhere in the home. Those adults heard a loud boom around 6 p.m.
Tawon walked out of the bedroom, yelled that the gun had gone off and collapsed on the kitchen floor, prosecutors said in a detention filing. According to the filing, Rice followed Tawon, made a phone call and left the apartment. He returned moments later, went into his bedroom and left again. He returned a third time and told the others that an ambulance was coming.
Tawon died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Investigators believe the gun was fired at close range, and laboratory analysis found no traces of gunpowder on Rice’s hands or the clothing he was wearing that day, prosecutors said.
Investigators found Rice at his mother’s home and took him into custody. Someone there had found the gun under a mattress, and CPD recovered the weapon. During police interviews, Rice gave varying accounts of what happened. He initially identified someone else as the shooter but eventually said the gun fired while Tawon was playing with it, prosecutors said.
Rice was not charged immediately and was released while detectives continued investigating. Days after his release, a witness recorded a phone call in which Rice allegedly admitted telling Tawon to “unload the firearm and clean the bullets,” according to the detention filing.
Rice allegedly said Tawon had been posing with the gun while talking on the phone and that the firearm discharged when Rice tried to take it away, according to the prosecution’s initial allegations.
After being arrested again to face charges, Rice allegedly told police the gun fired when he grabbed it from Tawon’s lap. He also admitted hiding the weapon at his mother’s home, prosecutors said.
Rice has now pleaded guilty to child endangerment causing death and criminal sexual abuse by force, according to court records.
Judge John Lyke sentenced Rice to 10 years for child endangerment causing death and six years for criminal sexual abuse by force. The sentences will be served concurrently. With sentencing credits, Rice is expected to be released after serving about five years.
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