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Teen sentenced to five years in friend's shooting death

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After acknowledging his sentence wouldn't appease anyone inside his crowded courtroom, Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael Cruikshank sentenced a Tucson teen to five years in prison Friday for shooting a friend to death.

Daniel Edward Ramirez, 18, pleaded guilty last month to negligent homicide in the Dec. 11, 2006, death of Alfredo Valenzuela Jr., 17.

According to police, Valenzuela brought the gun to Lincoln Regional Park on the city's East Side and Ramirez accidentally shot Valenzuela while handling the gun in a criminally negligent manner.

On Friday, friends and family members of both teenagers crammed into Cruikshank's courtroom to see how much time Ramirez would receive. He was facing four to eight years in prison.

Alfredo Valenzuela Sr. told Cruikshank his son was a "good kid" who attended church every Sunday and loved football and baseball.

There's a big difference between an 8-year-old boy finding a gun and accidentally killing someone and what happened to his son, Valenzuela said.

Deputy Pima County Attorney Casey McGinley and defense attorney Brian Metcalf argued about whether Ramirez feels remorse.

McGinley said Ramirez blamed his actions on drugs and alcohol, and yet continues to use them.

"What more of a wake-up call does he need?" McGinley asked.

Metcalf said Ramirez stuck around after the shooting, called 911 and tried to help Valenzuela until paramedics arrived.

"He's taken responsibility from the moment it happened," Metcalf said, adding he thought Ramirez should have been offered a plea agreement that included the possibility of probation.

Cruikshank said he's positive people told Ramirez before the tragedy that he shouldn't drop out of school, drink, use drugs or play with guns, and yet he did all those things.

Gesturing to the standing-room-only crowd, the judge told Ramirez to look at all the people he has hurt and noted there is nothing he will ever be able to do to rectify the situation.

Still, the judge said he was giving Ramirez a somewhat mitigated sentence because of Ramirez's age and lack of a significant criminal history.

In addition to the prison time, the judge ordered Ramirez to pay more than $9,000 in restitution.