This article has been updated to reflect that the victim, Armoni Cantu, was not an Erie High School student.<\/p>\n
An emotional and tense day in court as the teen who admitted to killing another Erie teen learned his fate.<\/p>\n
Investigators said 18-year-old Jamarion Boone chased down a group of teens after a confrontation, opening fire and killing 17-year-old Armoni Cantu in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Jamarion Boone was sentenced to 53 years to life in prison for first-degree murder in the death of Armoni Cantu, and 14 to 30 years for shooting the other student.<\/p>\n
Boone pleaded guilty to first-degree murder just before his trial in January, and pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of another teenager, who was shot in the head and seriously injured.<\/p>\n
Police said on December 17, 2024, Boone chased down a group teenagers in his car after an earlier confrontation. Moments later, Boone pulled out a gun near 31st and Liberty streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in the broad daylight just after school, I think a harsh sentence is appropriate when you combine that with his criminal history and the way he taunted the family afterwards,\u201d said Jeremy Lightner, chief deputy district attorney for the Erie County DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, Boone is also facing charges of attempted criminal homicide in what prosecutors called an unrelated shooting that happened just 13 days before the December 17 homicide.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of in uncharted territory with a sentence on a person this young with this bad of a history with this type of crime, so we deferred to the judge. We knew Judge Trucilla knows what he\u2019s doing and we knew it was in the hands of someone who would go slowly and meticulously and get to what he felt was the best result,\u201d Lightner said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese situations are just so sad at the end of the day. I felt pleased that we got justice for Armoni\u2019s family, but that\u2019s overwhelmed by just the pain that they\u2019re feeling and the pain in the courtroom. A young man lost his life and another young man is dealing with the consequences for it that he earned, but it\u2019s still pretty heavy,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Family members said this is a pain they will never be able to live down. The defense argued the decision was made by peer presence. Boone himself admitted that what he did that day was a horrible decision and rash.<\/p>\n
An aunt of Armoni Cantu told the judge she will never be able to celebrate Christmas again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that the kids that are 15 out there that think guns are fun just realize there are consequences. We don\u2019t want to prosecute them, we don\u2019t want to deal with families. We want them to make better decisions so that we never have to see them and they can live happy, healthy lives,\u201d Lightner went on to say.<\/p>\n
Those sentences will run concurrently and he will also have to pay restitution costs.<\/p>\n
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