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September 26, 2006

Update: Providence man gets 33 years for killing teen / Photo

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers
Eddie Gonzalez listens as Superior Court Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer spells out the terms of his sentence today.

PROVIDENCE -- A 22-year-old Providence man was sentenced to serve 33 years in prison today after pleading no contest to second-degree murder for last year's shooting death of 16-year-old Errol Clinton.

Eddie Gonzalez shot Clinton from behind as he was running away in the city's Elmwood section the night of July 31, 2005. Clinton bled to death after the bullet ripped through Clinton's buttocks and exited his stomach, according to the prosecutor's graphic description of the crime during the sentencing hearing today in Superior Court.

Superior Court Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer sentenced Gonzalez to 50 years in prison, 33 to serve, for admitting guilt in the second-degree murder charge. The judge dismissed the charge of discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, but sentenced Gonzalez to an additional 10 years -- to be served concurrently -- for one count of assault with a dangerous weapon (Gonzalez's hands and feet).

Clinton's mother and father appeared at the hearing today, but the mother was too upset to read her impact statement, which was read instead by the prosecutor, Stephen Regine.

Her teenage son was "a gift from God," said Regine, reading Cherisee Clinton's statement, which went on to say he was "harmless, loving and innocent." She also said she forgave the killer.

Julius Clinton said that Gonzalez had destroyed not only the lives of the Clintons, but those of his family's and his own.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples with reports from Journal staff writer Gregory Smith

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 4:15 PM | Permalink

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