CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for shooting a 13-year-old boy seven times, then telling a witness "remember what happens to snitches."

Jovan Hayes, 27, was found guilty last month of attempted murder, felonious assault and intimidation of a victim or witness.

Hayes shot the boy in September 2015 while he stood feet away from a woman related to a victim in a 2013 shooting death where Hayes was charged with murder.

The 13-year-old, who still has a bullet lodged in his shoulder, testified that Hayes made the threat to the woman after the shooting. She testified against Hayes at trial, but prosecutors have said that she's had to relocate several times.

Two men wearing white t-shirts appeared in the court during the boy's testimony. The boy told the jury that the two were there to report on what he said at trial to the neighborhood, according to Joe Frolik, spokesman for prosecutor Timothy McGinty.

Prosecutors were forced to drop a 2013 murder case against Hayes after a witness in that murder was identified on the television program First 48. Someone opened fire on the witness' family and the witness eventually refused to testify, Frolik said.

Given the history of witness intimidation in Hayes' cases, Judge Michael Astrab ordered the jurors' identities sealed in Hayes' most recent trial.

Hayes will be 46 years old when he is released from prison.