Jerome Sutton said Thursday that he knows a North Carolina man didn't set out to kill his brother during a shootout last year at a North Charleston bar.
But Jacques Slade, of Gastonia, North Carolina, wasn't even supposed to have a gun the night Jamaine Sutton, 32, of Dunbar, was killed, said Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom on Thursday. Bloom handed down the maximum prison sentence to the man.
"People are too quick to pull out a gun. First of all, you should not have had a gun," the judge told Slade on Thursday.
Slade, 26, pleaded guilty last month to voluntary manslaughter for Jamaine Sutton's death, which occurred during a shootout at the Boondocks Bar and Grill on Washington Street West. Slade also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He initially was charged with murder.
Bloom on Thursday sentenced him to spend 15 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and five years for possessing a gun.
"To run consecutively," the judge said, "one after the other."
Before his sentence was handed down Thursday, Slade said nothing more than that he wanted to apologize to Sutton's family.
Slade, who is represented by former county prosecutor Mark Plants, admitted to firing shots on the night Sutton was killed, but said he wasn't aiming for Sutton.
"I didn't even know him," he said during his plea hearing.
The manslaughter charge carries a potential 3- to 15-year prison sentence and the gun charge carries a 5-year maximum.
Jerome Sutton spoke about what kind of person his younger brother was before the sentencing. The death has been a huge loss for his family, Jerome Sutton said.
"My brother had a daughter - has a daughter," Jerome Sutton said. "That's going to be rough road every day for her. He was a good person, a really good person. He was really well liked."
Although four other people were shot, Jamaine Sutton was the only one who died as a result of a shootout inside the bar which broke out just after 2 a.m. on May 14.
Jamaine Sutton was shot five times and pronounced dead at the scene, assistant Kanawha prosecutor Fred Giggenbach said. Any one of three gunshot wounds - one to his head, another in his shoulder and a shot in the back - would have killed the man, the prosecutor said.
"The defendant chose to pull a gun and fire very recklessly into a crowd," Giggenbach said of Slade. "We ask the court to impose the maximum sentence and run them consecutively."
The weapon used to kill Sutton has not been recovered. There is video of the incident but it's not clear, as the bar was very dark, according to Giggenbach. There also is no DNA or fingerprint evidence to show who shot Sutton, the prosecutor previously said.
While he said he knows Slade didn't set out to kill his brother, Jerome Sutton said he hopes Slade will spend his time in prison trying to change his life.
"I don't know much about him," Jerome Sutton said of Slade, "but I do know the rash decision he made that night cost my brother his life."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.