A jury found Wafer guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter last month. On Wednesday, he was sentenced by Judge Dana Hathaway to serve 15 to 30 years for the second-degree murder charge along with 7 to 15 years for the manslaughter charge.

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Wafer will also serve a two-year sentence for the felony firearm charge, which means he was sentenced to serve at least 17 years in prison. An attorney for Wafer, who is 55, had told the judge before the sentencing was announced that anything more than a decade in prison is a “life sentence,” according to the Associated Press.

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Kym Worthy, the Wayne County prosecutor, said last month that “justice was served” when Wafer was found guilty. On Wednesday, Worthy noted that McBride’s family “stoically and patiently waited for justice” in the 10 months since McBride was killed.

“We all must remember that a young woman with her future ahead of her lost her life,” Worthy said in a statement Wednesday.

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The second-degree murder charge carried with it a potential for life in prison, while the manslaughter conviction carried a maximum of 15 years in prison, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Wafer apologized to McBride’s family in the courtroom on Wednesday, saying he hoped that they could forgive him.

Wafer had testified during the trial that he grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun because he feared for his life and said he “just reacted.” (He had also previously told police that the shooting was accidental.) A juror told the Detroit Free Press that “no one believed” Wafer’s testimony that he acted in self-defense.

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McBride appeared at his door after crashing her car in the area, and tests show she was intoxicated at the time she was killed.

The case was racially charged, as McBride was a black teen shot and killed by a white man barely four months after George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter after shooting and killing Trayvon Martin.

McBride’s parents told reporters after Wafer was convicted that they supported the verdict.