NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man convicted of fatally shooting his 16-year-old friend was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.
Noah Hendron, 20, was sentenced in New Britain Superior Court for the November 2017 killing of 16-year-old Vincent Basile in their friend’s Wethersfield home.
Hendron was convicted in November of first-degree manslaughter, but acquitted of murder.
Prosecutors argued Hendron intentionally shot and killed Basile because he had repeatedly loaded and unloaded the gun and pointed it at Basile’s face despite being asked multiple times not to do so by the victim and another friend.
Hendron, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, also attempted to cover up the shooting by throwing the .38-caliber revolver he just obtained in a storm drain, prosecutors said.
The defense said the shooting was an accident, pointing out that the witness told a 911 dispatcher and police investigators that it was accidental.
Hendron’s lawyer argued his client was guilty of negligence or recklessness, but not murder.
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