Antoinette Maxwell pressed her fingers against her eyes in the courtroom Wednesday.
"Amen," she said upon hearing the judge tell Leonard Thomas, the man convicted of killing her son, that he would spend the rest of his natural life in prison.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King on Wednesday followed a jury's recommendation and sentenced Thomas, 45, of Detroit, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting of Gerald Maxwell, 28, two years ago inside a Rand apartment.
"Mr. Leonard Thomas, I see there's malice in your heart but I'm going to leave you with God," Antoinette Maxwell said, in a firm voice, before King handed down the sentence. "You have a lot of time to think about what you've done.
"You've destroyed my family," she said.
Thomas told the judge he had nothing to say. He didn't turn to look at Antoinette Maxwell, who added that her son had four children she is now helping raise.
Thomas said he planned to appeal the murder conviction. His attorney, Ed Bullman, told King that he had already filed a notice of appeal with the state Supreme Court.
During the trial earlier this month, Thomas took the stand and told jurors that he shot Maxwell in self-defense.
The defense tried to convince jurors that Maxwell had a gun but police and prosecutors said there was no such evidence.
Assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers on Wednesday said there was nothing left to be said before Thomas was sentenced. The jury had already heard the facts of the case and made a decision, she said.
Thomas and others in the apartment had been up the night before partying and using drugs, except for Maxwell, who was there selling heroin, Akers said at trial. Thomas wanted some of Maxwell's heroin to trade a woman for sex. When Maxwell refused, Thomas shot him, Akers told jurors.
Drema Saunders was in the room when Maxwell was shot and testified that five days before the shooting Thomas felt bullied by Maxwell.
Three days before the shooting, Maxwell had made Thomas go outside and pick up fecal matter, Saunders testified.
Thomas was so upset with Maxwell on that day that he cried and ran off, Akers reminded jurors, minutes before they began deliberations. And the day of the shooting, Thomas sat at the kitchen table with Robert Obey, playing with his gun and saying he was going to, "Kill a mother [expletive] today," Akers reminded jurors that Obey had testified.
It took jurors less than two hours to reach a verdict.
Maxwell's twin brother, Gerard, pleaded guilty last month to voluntary manslaughter in the 2015 killing of Christopher "Snacks" Carey in Rand.
Maxwell had initially faced a murder charge, but prosecutors dismissed it and other charges as part of a deal. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
"There's a lot of grief in my family," Antoinette Maxwell said Wednesday to Thomas. "I'm not going to judge you, I'm going to leave it up to God. We all have to go for judgment one day. That's all I'm going to say."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.