AURORA, Colo. — A man accused of fatally shooting a teenager at the Town Center of Aurora two days after Christmas 2019 was sentenced last week to 35 years in prison, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Kamyl Xavier Garrette, 20, of Denver, got the maximum sentenced allowed under his plea agreement for shooting and killing 17-year-old Nathan Poindexter, Jr., on Dec. 27, 2019, at the Aurora mall.
Garette was 18 at the time of the shooting. He pleaded guilty in October to one count of second-degree murder, with a violent crime sentence enhancer.
> Video above: Victim of Aurora mall shooting remembered, Dec. 28, 2019.
“Mr. Garrette made the final choice to pull the weapon and to fire the weapon with deadly accuracy,” said Judge Shay Whitaker said at the sentencing on Friday. “At some point, pulling a gun and pulling the trigger has got to stop being the answer.”
Garrette's co-defendant, Senoj Jones, 20, of Denver, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on May 8 and was given a suspended 25-year sentence pending the completion of seven years in the juvenile offender system, the DA's Office said in a news release.
On the day of the shooting, Poindexter was at the mall with his family when he encountered Garrette and Jones outside the first level of the J.C. Penney store.
The three had an ongoing dispute, according to Poindexter's family. They got into a fight, and Garrette shot Poindexter, who was unarmed, in front of his stepfather and younger brother, the DA's Office said in a release.
“Nate was the victim – the one lying dead today. He can’t talk for himself,” Poindexter's mother said in court, according to the release. “I am speaking for Nathan.. We can never bring him back. My baby is gone, and I am hurting.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Casey Brown, who prosecuted the case, said the escalation of violence was unnecessary.
"It only perpetuates more violence," he said. "… There should be stiff consequences for pulling a trigger during what could have been a fistfight.”
Poindexter had been a part of the Crowley Foundation, an educational and leadership organization. The founder of the program said, at the time of the shooting, that Pointdexter had been a part mentorship program for years and had grown into a leader.
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