“He should have to spend the rest of his life in prison,” she said at Brandon Parker’s sentencing hearing. “He took something precious from us. Why should he have any opportunities at all?”

Parker will do time, but a life sentence was not a possibility after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to a reduced charge of second-degree felony manslaughter. Second District Judge Cristina Ortega sentenced Parker to one to 15 years’ imprisonment, the maximum allowed under state law for manslaughter.

Parker was 17 when he, Caden Ferguson and a third teenager were sitting at the kitchen table in Parker’s parents’ home on March 14, 2020. According to charging documents, Parker shot Ferguson in the forehead, an instantly fatal wound.

Defense attorney Randall Marshall urged Ortega to sentence Parker to probation rather than prison. “Brandon went to his mother and said, ‘I killed my best friend, it was an accident,'” Marshall said. “He recognized what he had done was not only wrong but was quite permanent.”

Marshall said the two “were like brothers. They were best friends.” And Parker has accepted responsibility for his actions, he said, adding that “He’s here to take his lumps.”

The attorney pointed out that Parker was attempting to turn the gun on himself after the shooting, despondent, but his mother took the gun away.

Marshall cited a psychologist’s evaluation that said Parker is amenable to rehabilitation and that Parker and society would be best served by having him undergo probationary programming. “You have to remember, he was a juvenile, and someone 17, 18, their brains are not completely mature and they still have difficulty making choices,” he said.

The case also drew the attention of Black Lives Matter Utah, which raised $25,000 cash to bail Parker out of jail pending trial. Parker is Black and Ferguson was white, and the group accused prosecutors of filing a murder charge for an accidental shooting. Weber County Attorney Christopher Allred denied there was any racial component in the case.

Parker has a chance to become a productive member of society, Marshall said. “Sometimes we confuse justice with revenge,” he said. “Sometimes we reap revenge on people rather than seek true justice.”

But prosecutor Patrick Tan of the Weber County Attorney’s Office said Ferguson’s shooting was not an accidental firing during a gun’s cleaning, a product of horseplay or any sort of accidental firing.

“We have a defendant who did have intent to pick up the gun, who had conscious intent to insert his finger into the trigger area and squeeze and pull the trigger,” Tan said.

Just before the shooting, according to Tan, Ferguson told Parker, “Stop pointing the gun at me.”

Tan also said Parker did not tell police there was a witness to the shooting. They had to track down the third teen, who said he saw Parker shoot Ferguson.

But Tan and Marshall agreed that the law allowed Ortega to send Parker to serve at least the beginning years of his sentence in a secure juvenile detention facility, most likely Millcreek in Ogden. Tan said Parker could serve time there and receive rehab programming, with the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole having jurisdiction over his case.

Parker will be kept in the juvenile system until he turns 21 ½, unless the board paroles him before. If he’s still incarcerated, he will go to state prison.

Ferguson’s mother said Parker “shattered and altered our lives.” She said her other children remain traumatized, especially Caden’s younger sister. She said the loss has strained her marriage and her husband “is working himself to death.”

“We blame ourselves and each other for his death, even though Brandon pulled the trigger,” she said. “We thought Caden was in a safe place in Brandon’s home with his parents there.”

Before Ortega imposed the sentence, Parker said in a soft voice that Ferguson’s death “bothers me every day. It hurts every day. I am so sorry for what happened.”