Lecent Ross, 14, went over to the home of a close friend on a summer morning in 2015.

They were in his room. Laughter could be heard coming from it.

A single gun shot rang out.

Ross had been hit by gunfire and died almost instantly.

Weeks later, the friend, a 13-year-old boy, was arrested and charged with manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death and a slew of other charges related to possessing an illegal firearm.

On Friday, the now 15-year-old was sentenced to the maximum youth sentence of three years, after pleading guilty to criminal negligence causing death, possession of a restricted firearm and failing to comply with a court order. He cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

“July 11, 2015 was the worst day of my life,” Ross’s mother Alicia Jesquith wrote in a victim impact statement read to the court Friday by a friend.

“Since Lecent was killed, my whole world has changed . . . . I have lost the ability to be the person I was when she was here.”

As Jesquith shook with tears, her words were aimed directly at the teenager in the prisoner’s box of the small courtroom.

“I am left picking up the pieces of our lives while you get to go home to your mother and to your family. My family is broken. My daughter is not coming back and I don’t know where I am supposed to go from here.”

The teen has been in custody since his arrest in August 2015 — he did not apply for bail — and will serve another six months in open custody before being released on community supervision, then probation for the remainder of his sentence.

His lawyer John Erickson said Friday that Ross and the teen had been in a relationship and he did not mean to harm her. Ross had gone over to visit him at his home, very close to her own in the Jamestown Cres. area of Rexdale.

The teen had returned to his mother’s home in the Jamestown neighbourhood two days prior and had obtained a gun “for personal protection,” Erickson said. “He didn’t realize it was loaded at the time.”

He was “handling (the gun) in the bedroom,” and, when he moved to get past Ross in the tight space between the bed and the wall, the gun went off.

“He had the gun in his hand. It was pointing at her. It discharged,” Erickson said.

Erickson would not comment on where or how his client obtained the gun, but said “it is not unusual occurrence for firearms to be found in the neighbourhood.”

The teen had been sentenced for robbery and assault causing bodily harm two weeks before the shooting.

He was on probation and was not supposed to be in the Rexdale area, court heard.

It was the same judge, Ontario Court Justice Antonio Di Zio, who sentenced him on Friday.

During sentencing submissions court heard that the teen suffers from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and serious childhood trauma that he is unwilling to discuss or seek counselling for.

Crown prosecutors told the court that there are serious concerns about a lack of support and structure for the teen once he is out of custody. He has been found to be at the high end of moderate on the risk scale, prosecutor Patrick said Travers, who later noted that, had the offence happened a few weeks later, after the teen turned 14, the Crown might have sought an adult sentence.

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Erickson told the court the teen’s mother has found stable housing away from the Rexdale area, and that counselling would be available. He had asked that the teen be released on probation after three months instead of six.

“I am not convinced (the teen) has progressed enough to be safely released into the community at this time,” Justice Di Zio said in his ruling.

In handing down the maximum available custody, he said: “I don’t know if it will be enough. I suspect it might not be.”

The teen briefly addressed the court, offering an apology to Ross’s family.

“I regret what happened. I wish it didn’t happen . . . . I just want you to know I’m sorry for what happened.”

Her family remains skeptical. As Erickson told the court how much the teen had cared about Ross, one person loudly said: “No, he didn’t.”

Outside the courthouse, Ross’s aunt Teleze Johnson said his apology was “just words.”

In her victim impact statement, she urged him to change his life, if not for himself, then for Ross, who was smart, caring and ambitious, and had plans to become a lawyer.

“You have the chance that she doesn’t: to become a positive example and a light in this world. Don’t let her death be in vain! We all have choices. Choose life!”

A man who was 18 at the time was also arrested in connection with the incident and charged with several offences including criminal negligence causing death. He pleaded guilty last year to obstructing a peace officer for giving a false statement to police and received a conditional discharge. He cannot be named due to the publication ban that covers the youth’s identity.

Read more:

Memorial held for Lecent Ross on first anniversary of teen’s accidental shooting death

Lecent Ross’s mother mourns painful anniversary one year after shooting

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