MIAMI, Fla. – A mother left members of a Florida courtroom stunned when she forgave and then hugged her teenage daughter’s killer earlier this week.
WFOR reports that Martha Guzman-DeJesus’ 13-year-old daughter was killed when a 16-year-old boy was showing off a gun on a school bus when the weapon discharged and fatally wounded the girl two years ago.
Jordyn Howe said he was “sorry for her loss” and apologized for the shooting before hugging Guzman-DeJesus.
Howe, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a deadly weapon and two other charges, had been facing 22 months in prison for the shooting of Lourdes “Jina” Guzman-DeJesus.
“It is our hope that … he will join me in going from school to school; from child to child; from parent to parent; from teacher to teacher urging them to understand how dangerous guns are in the hands of children,” Guzman-DeJesus said in court during a plea hearing on Tuesday.
As part of the plea deal that Guzman-DeJesus helped orchestrate, Howe will spend a year in juvenile detention and then spend time talking about the dangers of guns. He could have spent years in prison.
