A 16-year-old, who carried out a shooting at a school in the Dallas area earlier this year resulting in the death of one student and injury to another, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for capital murder and attempted capital murder, according to prosecutors.
The teenager, who was 15 at the time of the incident, confessed to being the shooter and left the decision of his sentence to a jury, as disclosed by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
To protect the minor's identity, prosecutors have not released his name.
On March 20, prior to the start of the school day, the teenager fired a shotgun into a group of students who were waiting for the school doors to open at Lamar High School in Arlington. This tragic event resulted in the death of 16-year-old Ja’Shawn Poirier, and a 16-year-old girl was also injured by shrapnel.
The teenager will be placed in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, and a decision regarding whether he should serve the remainder of his sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will be made by the judge before he turns 19.
Prosecutors had initially sought to try the teenager as an adult, but the judge opted to keep him within the juvenile justice system.
The jury handed down the maximum sentence, while the defense attorneys had requested leniency, citing the teenager's challenging upbringing.
In a separate development earlier this month, the teenager's father received a prison sentence of over six years for illegal possession of firearms.
Federal prosecutors revealed that law enforcement found paperwork related to the shotgun used in the school shooting and other firearms during a search of the father's apartment following the incident.
In another news entirely, French rapper MHD, whose real name is Mohamed Sylla and is 29 years old, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his involvement in a murder case. See detailed story here
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