LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A man who fired a stray bullet that killed a 7-year-old Kentucky boy as been sentenced to 70 months in prison on federal gun charges.
Wyatt Williams fired several shots while playing dice in May 2017 and one bullet went through the window of the Louisville home of Dequante Hobbs Jr., killing the youngster as he ate a piece of cake at his kitchen table.
Williams pleaded guilty in January to possession of a firearm while he was addicted to or a user of a controlled substance and apologized to Hobbs’ family during a sentencing hearing on Thursday, news outlets reported, but the boy’s mother called him a “menace to society.”
“”I can’t get my son back, so there’s no reason he should walk free at all,” Micheshia Norment told U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom.
Prosecutors had asked for an 84-month sentence while defense attorneys requested normal sentencing guidelines of between 33 to 41 months.
U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman appeared in person at the sentencing hearing to send a strong message with a harsh sentence for “a deterrent effect, for people in this city to know when you pick up a firearm and use it recklessly, or you’re a felon in possession of a firearm, there is a backstop. There is federal prosecution that awaits.”
Williams has also pleaded guilty to state charges of second-degree manslaughter, wanton endangerment and receiving a stolen firearm.
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