Richmond man gets life for killing boy whose ‘Obama Made Me Proud’ song went viral

RICHMOND — A local resident has been sentenced to 25 years to life for killing a boy who created a viral video about Barack Obama’s election when he was 6 years old.

The victim, 17-year-old Ayanius Saucer, was shot and killed in October 2019 during an attempted carjacking in Richmond. The suspect, then-19-year-old Amir Williams, had been feuding with Saucer over a mutual love interest, prosecutors said at the time.

Williams was charged a month after the fatal shooting, and faced enhancements that he ambushed Saucer, which would have led to a sentence of life without parole. Instead, through a plea deal, Williams agreed to a murder conviction and a life sentence, with a chance for parole after 25 years.

Williams, now 24, is at Solano State Prison in Vacaville and will be eligible for parole in 2038, according to prison records. The plea deal was finalized in May but has not been previously reported.

In 2009, when he was 6, Saucer created a song called “Obama Made Me Proud” under the rap alias Lil’ Yani. His father, also an aspiring rapper named Davanius Saucer, was gunned down in Richmond in 2002.

In a 2009 article by this news organization, Ayanius Saucer’s family told a reporter the San Pablo youngster started performing music when he was 4 years old; he sang, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” in the finals of a competition at Hillside Community Church in El Cerrito, when he was by far the youngest competitor.

On “Obama Made Me Proud,” Saucer is seen dressed in a suit, playing video games and rapping into a microphone.

“I’m a little brother/Obama made me proud … I’m only 6/in this election I was all up in the mix,” Saucer rapped on the song. The video garnered hundreds of thousands of views, and was released shortly after Obama’s 2008 election and before his 2009 inauguration.