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Man Sentenced For Halloween Murder Of 5-Year-Old Boy In Spider-Man Costume
A man was sentenced to more than 25 years for fatally shooting a 5-year-old boy who was wearing a Spider-Man costume on Halloween 2010.
Marcus Denson, 24, previously pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the death of the young boy, Aaron Shannon, Jr., and two counts of attempted murder of the boy's uncle and grandfather, reports the L.A. Times. In May of last year, another man, 26-year-old Leonard Hall, Jr., was convicted of second degree murder and two counts of attempted murder for the same tragic shooting in a South L.A. neighborhood.
According to prosecutors, Denson and Hall were in rival gang territory when they crossed through an alley behind the home of the boy's family in the Florence neighborhood on October 31, 2010. Just as they passed through, around 2 p.m., the 5-year-old ran out in the backyard to show off his Spider-Man costume to his family before going trick-or-treating. That's when shots rang out and a single gun shot struck the boy in the back of the head. His 56-year-old grandpa was hit in the wrist and his 27-year-old uncle was shot in the leg. The boy was taken to the hospital, but died later that day.
"He was 5 years old and 3 months—one thousand nine hundred and eleven days to be exact," the boy's grandfather, William Shannon, later told the Times. "That's all he got."
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Denson was 18-years-old at the time of the shooting and was arrested days afterward. He later pled guilty in 2013 as part of a deal with prosecutors. He also provided testimony in the three trails for Hall—the first two in which the juries couldn't reach a unanimous decision—and told jurors that Hall was the gunman. The two were members of the Kitchen Crips gang. Aaron Shannon, Jr.'s family had no gang affiliation, reports KTLA.
"I was at the wrong place at the wrong time," Denson said before the sentencing, according to the Times. "I have remorse in my heart. That's why I came clean."
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