A teen was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison for the 2024 murder of a 17-year-old, after changing his not guilty plea in exchange for being given a lighter sentence as a \u201cyouthful offender.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcus Anderson, 19, entered a no contest plea for second-degree murder in the killing of Gabriel Rosario Cortez. According to Orange County deputies, Anderson, who was 17 at the time, and his younger brother planned to rob Gabriel on the night of Dec. 12, 2024 after they reached out to him to sell them marijuana.<\/p>\n
According to an arrest affidavit, a scuffle between Gabriel and Anderson\u2019s brother led to Anderson pulling out a gun. Gabriel responded by drawing his own weapon and firing, wounding Anderson in the neck. Anderson then shot Gabriel multiple times, killing him.<\/p>\n
Anderson, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was charged last year as an adult and later indicted for first-degree murder by a grand jury, which was downgraded to second-degree murder due to the plea agreement. An additional armed robbery charge was dropped as a result of his plea.<\/p>\n
His brother, who the Orlando Sentinel isn\u2019t naming because of his age, was also charged at the time, but the outcome of his case is not clear since it was handled in juvenile court.<\/p>\n
The gallery was packed Thursday with loved ones from both sides as Anderson sat shackled next to his attorney in a button-down shirt and blue slacks. Prior to sentencing, Gabriel\u2019s aunt Virginia Hermidas urged Circuit Judge Eric Nechter to impose a life sentence in lieu of the shorter term prosecutors agreed to. In a tearful statement, she said she helped raise Gabriel since he was 2 and lovingly described him as a kind young man with an open heart who hoped to join the military.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery morning, I wake up to the same nightmare, the reality that he\u2019s gone,\u201d Hermidas said. \u201cI will never hear him laugh again; I\u2019ll never hug or kiss him again. I\u2019ll never see him graduate, chase his dreams, fall in love and become the man he was supposed to be \u2014 all of those moments were stolen from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following his prison sentence, Anderson will be on probation for two years and was ordered to write an apology letter and complete community service hours. Nechter acknowledged the short sentence, as a second-degree murder conviction typically carries a lifelong prison bid.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a lot of life left to live; that cannot be said, sadly, about the person you murdered,\u201d Nechter said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity to turn this into something positive for you, though unfortunately for the folks on the other side of the courtroom will never be able to turn this into a positive. \u2026\u00a0 You need to take this absolutely, 1000% seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teen was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison for the 2024 murder of a 17-year-old, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[112,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-176953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}