FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – An Allen Superior Court judge sentenced a 16-year-old boy who admitted to a south side killing this past October to 55 years in prison Friday.

Austin Moran previously pleaded guilty to one count of murder as part of a deal with prosecutors and admitted to shooting 19-year-old Yael Edu Esparza near West Wildwood Avenue this past fall.

As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed to drop a 20-year enhancement Moran faced for using a firearm in the commission of a crime.

The judge overseeing the case sentenced Moran to 60 years but suspended five of those years, according to court records.

Moran had been accused of trying to set up what was likely a fake drug deal with Esparza Oct. 2 in an attempt to rob him. Instead, he ended up shooting Esparza, according to Allen Superior Court documents.

Fort Wayne Police officers were called to the 300 block of West Wildwood Avenue at about 9:15 p.m. that night where they found Esparza suffering from multiple gunshot wounds while sitting in the driver’s seat of a white Ford Escape.

Medics took Esparza to a local hospital where he later died. The Allen County Coroner later ruled his death a homicide.

Witnesses in the neighborhood readily spoke to police shortly after the shooting, according to court documents.

One witness told officers in court documents that he pulled up to his home just before the shooting and was approached by someone whose description matched Moran’s. This person asked the witness: “Are you him?”

Video surveillance from a nearby home captured Esparza’s SUV travelling west on Wildwood Avenue before making a U-Turn at the intersection with Weber Street. Seconds later, the video captured five gunshots, screams, more gunshots and more screaming, according to court documents.

That video also captured someone running away.

Another witness told police a person with red hair in a ponytail wearing red pants and a grey sweatshirt fled the scene. A different witness came forward and said the person running from the scene was a friend of his family.

Eventually, officers spoke with someone who knew Moran. They eventually reached Moran by phone, and he said during the call that he “texted my friend to buy drugs and he had a gun, strap out a gun and I self defense and I reflexed and I pulled mine out and shot,” an investigator wrote in court documents.

An officer asked Moran if he really shot someone, and Moran replied, “Yes, I shot someone,” according to court documents.

Police eventually took Moran into custody and he was booked into to the Allen County Juvenile Center.

Later, prosecutors charged him as an adult.

As part of his sentenced, Moran was given credit for 235 days already served in Allen County Jail and ordered to pay more than $10,500 in restitution.