BUFFALO, N.Y. — A 17-year-old Buffalo teen was sentenced Thursday for causing the death of four teens when he crashed a stolen vehicle he was driving.
The teen, who is not being named due to his youthful offender status, was sentenced to 1-1/3 to four years of incarceration. He pleaded guilty in June to four counts of manslaughter in the second degree, one count of assault in the first degree, and one count of criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree.
The teen, who was 16 years old at the time of the crash, was operating the stolen KIA on the inbound Kensington Expressway on October 24, 2022, when he crashed near the entrance to the Scajaquada Expressway. All five people in the vehicle with him were ejected.
Four of those passengers — Ahjanae Harper, 14; Marcus Webster, 19; Swazine Swindle, 17 and Kevin Payne, 16 — died from their injuries in the crash. Harper was the mother of an infant at the time of the crash. Now, Harper's mother is raising her baby.
A fifth passenger, a 14-year-old female, was treated at ECMC and released. She continues to recover from her injuries.
The Erie County District Attorney's Office said they were opposed to the the defendant receiving youthful offender status and asked the court to impost the maximum sentence, which could have been up to 25 years in prison.
The teen received 1-1/3 to 4 years of incarceration on each charge, which is the maximum sentence as a youthful offender. He will serve each sentence at the same time. He will be sent to a state facility that houses people around his same age who have youthful offender status.
While in custody, the 17-year-old completed 10th grade.
At Thursday's sentencing, three family members of the teens who died spoke. The grandmother of one of the victims asked the teen if he would continue to do the same things or become a better person. He responded that he would become a better person.
Another family member told the teen she didn't want him to be punished forever.
"Today, maybe more so than I've ever seen in my career, there was a lot of grace, a lot of compassion, and, you know, it was overwhelming to even be in there," defense attorney Nick Texido said.
The 17-year-old also read a statement in court saying his heart hurts and he wishes he could trade places with his friends who died.
"I think today what really helped him was to see the families of his friends who have passed not hating him, and not, you know, wanting horrible things to happen to him and seeing that people still care about him I think really helped him today," Texido said.