Apr 14, 2006 12:29 am US/Eastern
Girl Confronts Man Who Shot & Paralyzed Her
BOSTON (CBS4) ―
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Kai Leigh Harriott cried as she spoke before the court on Thursday
CBS
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Kai Leigh was left paralyzed by the stray bullet that struck her back in 2003
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Anthony Warren changed his plea to guilty during Thursday's hearing
CBS
Five-year-old Kai Leigh sat in the front of the courtroom in her wheelchair and looked directly at the man who had just pleaded guilty Thursday to firing the shot that paralyzed her.
At first, she broke down, crying harder than she ever had since the night nearly three years ago when Anthony Warren, after an argument he and his brother had with her neighbors, fired three rounds at the three-family house where she was sitting on the porch.
After a sip of water and consoling from her mother, Kai spoke.
"What you done to me was wrong," she said to the man seated just 10 feet away. "But I still forgive him."
Warren, 29, of Boston, had been scheduled to go to trial in Suffolk Superior Court on six assault and weapons charges last month but instead pleaded guilty to all charges Thursday.
Prosecutors say Warren, his brother and others had an argument with people who lived on the first floor of the building in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood where Kai lived with her family. They left, then Warren returned around 11 p.m. on July 1, 2003, and fired three rounds at the house.
One of the bullets hit Kai -- then 3 years old -- as she sat on a third-floor porch with an older sister. The bullet shattered her spine, permanently paralyzing her from the chest down.
After his guilty plea, the girl, her mother and two sisters gave statements to the judge, who then sentenced Warren to 13-15 years in prison and five years of probation.
Kai's mother, Tonya David, said she tried to hate Warren but had forgiven him a long time ago.
After Kai spoke, Warren stood in shackles and handcuffs and accepted responsibility.
"I'm sorry," he told her. She said nothing as her mother embraced Warren, and members of their families hugged in the courtroom.
"She has the strength of a trooper," David said, noting that her daughter showed more emotion at the hearing than she ever had. "She has never complained once. She has never cried about being in a wheelchair, not once, not once."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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