Eight months after he left a loaded pistol near 2-year-old Jacarion Gladden and left the room, Shazeem Tyrell Hayes was sentenced Friday to 8½ years in prison in the toddler’s accidental shooting death.
Hayes, 19, pleaded guilty to possession of a handgun by a person convicted of a violent crime and unlawful conduct toward a child.
Circuit Judge Brian Gibbons sentenced Hayes to the maximum five-year term on the gun charge and an additional 3½ years on the unlawful-conduct charge. The maximum sentence on that count was 10 years.