OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — An Opelika teenager convicted of shooting a man in the back has been sentenced to 50 years in prison and ordered to pay thousands in fines.
Judge John Denson ordered Thursday that Andrew “Man-Man” Johnson, 17, must pay restitution and $15,000 in fines. A jury found Johnson guilty in February of shooting Cornelleus Lasae Wright in the pre-dawn hours of Thanksgiving 2006.
He was 16 at the time of the shooting but was charged as an adult.
The defense argued during the trial that it wasn’t Johnson who shot Wright, but Johnson’s brother.
Johnson’s defense attorney Susan James said the jury had doubts about her client’s guilt because deliberating took several hours.
“I believe that there was some question here that this very well was the wrong man,” James said.
She asked that Johnson be given 13 to 20 years as opposed to the maximum sentence of life in prison.
Johnson said he was sorry and asked the judge to be as lenient as possible, but Denson said the teen received a fair trial, and he took into account Johnson’s previous cases of firearm possession.
He said he thought Johnson was given a break because of his age and still had a chance to live a productive life.
“The man that you killed made no threat against you,” Denson said. “You pulled a gun and he ran. There was no self-defense. With no justification, you shot him in the back and killed him. Civilization cannot stand for these forms of murder. They do not go unpunished.”
James said she planned to appeal her client’s case.
State and Nation
Opelika teen gets 50 years for shooting man in back
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