By: Associated Press//September 27, 2011//
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A judge has sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for fatally shooting a teenage boy who broke into a Milwaukee scrap yard with his friends.
Fifty-four-year-old David Helton also was sentenced to four years of extended supervision Tuesday.
A jury in August found Helton guilty of second-degree reckless homicide while armed.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Milwaukee County Judge Richard Sankovitz called the shooting a tragedy.
Sankovitz said Helton — who lived in a trailer in the scrap yard — did not intend to kill anyone but was too quick to use force. But the judge also said 16-year-old Shelton Smith of Milwaukee had not thought about what he had to lose by entering the scrap yard last May 2.
Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com