WSFA 12 News Montgomery, AL |Teen sentenced in shooting death of Ala. 14-yr-old
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Associated Press - November 25, 2009 4:34 PM ET
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - A Pontiac teenager has been sentenced to 17 to 35 years in prison in the slaying of a 14-year-old from Alabama who was shot outside a church.
James Cecil Willis III was sentenced Wednesday by Oakland County Circuit Court Chief Judge Wendy Potts.
Defense attorney Mitch Ribitwer says Potts refused Willis' request to withdraw a no contest plea to second-degree murder the 18-year-old entered last month.
Ribitwer says he expects an appeal of Potts' plea ruling.
Dawan Allan-France Roberson of Akron, Ala., was killed last year after Willis fired a gun into a crowd outside a Pontiac church, about 20 miles northwest of Detroit.
Police say Willis was a member of the Goon Squad gang. Ribitwer says Willis never has acknowledged being part of the gang.
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