A teenager who shot and killed a man who confronted him during car break-ins near St. Albans got the maximum sentence Monday for the crime that he earlier admitted doing.
On the sentencing day for 17-year-old Eli Nelson, the mother of the man who was killed, Jimmy "JJ" Keith, tearfully described the impact of his death on her family.
“JJ’s son, Kaden, is 7,” Teresa Starcher said. “He has gone through a lot and has nightmares and is still trying to understand his daddy is gone."
Nelson was apologetic and said he was ready to take his responsibility as a young man.
He had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in a shooting that has been linked to a confrontation over car break ins near St. Albans.
Nelson was moved to adult status. He had hoped to be treated as a youthful offender or get the minimum three year-prison term.
The judge believed he got a break when he was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter rather than murder.
“I mean I’m at a loss to understand an argument can be made that it was a young reckless act, an accident basically, when he made a decision and took a gun with him where he was going," Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers said.
The judge gave him the maximum voluntary manslaughter sentence of 15 years.
Tears of joy and sadness followed that ruling.
It was an emotional day for both the victim's and the killer's families and they will have to go through it again in January when Nelson is re-sentenced as an adult.