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YOUNGSTOWN -- Emanuel R. Boyd, 20, of Boardman, gave emotional remarks about Kane Wiesensee before Boyd was sentenced to 14 to 18 years in prison Tuesday for stealing a gun and accidentally killing his best friend.
"I just want you guys to know that Kane was my best friend. He was the closest person in my life, and … he taught me so much about life," Boyd told Wiesensee's family members.
Boyd accidentally shot Wiesensee to death Feb. 13 in the home where Boyd lived on West Boulevard in Boardman, prosecutors said.
At the time of the shooting, Boyd and Wiesensee were living there together, Boyd's adoptive father having been placed in the Mahoning County jail.
Wiesensee's girlfriend also was in the house on a couch in front of Wiesensee, assistant Prosecutor Michael Rich said.
Wiesensee's girlfriend said she had her back turned when Boyd fired the gun but believes Boyd fired by accident. The shot hit Wiesensee in the chest, apparently narrowly missing the girlfriend, Rich said.
Boyd said he knows Wiesensee's mother, Erica Reyes, is "hurting a whole bunch," but he added that his friend "would say, 'Don't let me die for no reason. Make something of yourself while you are in prison and come out a successful person.'"
Reyes spoke later, saying her son was "loved by so many family, friends and teachers," saying: "No one could have predicted a situation like this, but it could have been prevented."
She said her son and Boyd had been friends since Boyd was 11.
"He killed his best friend. How he lives with that, I will never know. No mother should have to bury their only child," she said.
Boyd pleaded guilty earlier in the hearing to involuntary manslaughter and burglary. The involuntary manslaughter relates to Wiesensee's death. The burglary took place one week earlier and involved a gun -- the gun used in the killing, Rich said.
Rich later told Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that he agreed the death was preventable.
Had Boyd not committed the burglary that put a handgun in Boyd's home, Wiesensee probably would not have died.
"I don't know why he needed to have it. He wasn't allowed to have it," Rich said of a juvenile conviction Boyd had that prevented him from possessing a firearm.
"Preventable. It absolutely was," Rich said.
In exchange for Boyd's guilty plea, prosecutors will dismiss several other charges Boyd faced -- being a felon in possession of a firearm, tampering with evidence, grand theft, receiving stolen property and falsification.
erunyan@tribtoday.com