Rock Hill teen will accept 13 years in adult prison in killing when he was 15 years old
A Rock Hill teen who was 15 years old in 2022 during the fatal shooting of a man at a South Carolina apartment has agreed to a 13-year sentence in adult prison, according to court testimony and lawyers in the case.
The plea deal will end the cases against four boys arrested after Larry Ingram Jr., 38, was shot several times at his apartment. All four have admitted to being part of the shooting plot that included lying to police after the killing. The shooter got 20 years in adult prison and two others received juvenile sentences that will end by age 22.
The boy who appeared in York County Family Court Tuesday originally had been charged with murder and conspiracy but agreed to plead guilty as an adult to voluntary manslaughter, 16th Circuit Senior Solicitor Whitney Payne said in court.
The teen, now, 17, did not speak in court other than telling Family Court Judge Chad Smith he agreed to be waived up from juvenile court to plead guilty as an adult.
The Herald is not releasing the boy’s name or relationship to Ingram because Tuesday’s hearing was in juvenile court.
Plea deal: Adult charge, adult sentence
Prosecutor Whitney Payne told Judge Smith that the boy agreed to a plea deal for 13 years under what is called an Alford plea. In an Alford plea a defendant does not have to admit guilt, but accepts he would likely be found guilty if there was a trial.
The boy’s lawyers, Stacey Coleman and Melissa Inzerillo of the York County Public Defender’s Office, told Smith they agreed with the plea agreement, which moves the case to adult court.
Prosecutors and his lawyers said he will plead guilty to the manslaughter charge in adult court at a later date.
The Herald was the only media organization in court Tuesday.
Killing over discipline
When confronted by police shortly after the killing, the four teens told a phony story claiming they did not know what happened. The boy who was in court Tuesday is the second in the case to agree to plead guilty as an adult.
But Rock Hill police and York County prosecutors have said Ingram took away laptop computers used by the teenagers on Nov. 14, 2022. The suspects then schemed to kill Ingram later in the day, police have testified.
Ka’Marion Janaz Coffey admitted last year in court he shot Ingram several times in the apartment’s hallway. Coffey, who agreed to a 20-year adult plea deal, was 14 years old at the time of the killing.
Ingram was Coffey’s uncle. Coffey hid in a closet and used a gun that he had taken from a different adult family member after Ingram was lured into the hallway, Payne said in a previous court hearing.
Two other defendants’ cases stayed in Family Court where they pleaded guilty as juveniles to accessory to murder charges, Payne said.
