A Connecticut man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally shooting a 15-year-old high school student in a seemingly random attack two years ago.
Jenigh Ward, now 20, was handed the sentence Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of murder back in June for the killing of Elijah Gomez in Hamden.
“I’m sad every day. I’m miserable every day. Every day, I don’t want to be here no more. So every time you feel like that, I feel like that too,” Gomez’s mother Jennifer Cathcart told Ward at the hearing, according to local Fox affiliate WTIC.
Gomez was walking home from Hamden High School on May 9, 2022, when Ward and two other people snuck up on him, according to police. Ward pulled a gun and opened fire, striking Gomez with multiple bullets.
While the attack was captured on surveillance video and Ward eventually pleaded guilty, the other two men have not been identified. Cops said they are still investigating.
Authorities have never established any prior connection between Ward and Gomez, even though they both lived in Hamden.
“Every day, I can’t believe what I’ve done. And I hate to blame it on drugs and substance abuse, but I really don’t know who I was,” Ward said Wednesday, according to WTIC. “I know there isn’t anything I could say to Elijah’s family to take away your pain. I’m just so sorry that I stole a person you love from you.”
Along with the surveillance footage, cops tied Ward’s car, clothing and ballistic evidence from his home to the murder scene, according to prosecutors.
