Upper Darby<\/a>, was sentenced to 18 to 36 years in state prison. Nixon pleaded guilty to third-degree murder earlier this year for the fatal shooting, which unfolded in May 2025 as the two teens, classmates at Upper Darby High School, crossed paths on Long Lane near Pine Street.<\/p>\nEmotions and tempers flared during Nixon\u2019s hours-long sentencing, which the judge had to pause multiple times to rein in outbursts from those who filled the standing-room-only courtroom. Webster\u2019s friends and relatives screamed to be heard, calling Nixon a coward, among other insults, and demanding justice.<\/p>\n
Sheriff\u2019s deputies barred more people from entering the hearing, and had to respond to a scuffle that erupted outside the courthouse after Nixon\u2019s sentence was handed down.<\/p>\n
On the day of the shooting, Webster was riding a miniature dirt bike when he encountered Nixon, who had walked 25 minutes from his own neighborhood to the area, according to investigators.<\/p>\n
What happened next was the subject of debate during Tuesday\u2019s hearing. <\/p>\n
Nixon\u2019s attorney, Pete Manaras, said Webster asked his client if he was the \u201cyoung boul\u201d he had seen \u201cthe other day,\u201d and got off the bike to confront him. <\/p>\n
The two teens, he said, knew each other and had gotten into disputes before. Nixon, fearing for his safety, shot Webster in the abdomen, Manaras said. <\/p>\n
But Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips, who prosecuted the case, said Nixon was the aggressor. He was out looking for Webster, Phillips said, armed and lying in wait in an area where he knew he would encounter the other teen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public needs to be protected from people that would do such a thing on a sunny afternoon, on a beautiful May day, to a young man who didn\u2019t see it coming,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n
After the shooting, Nixon fled and was recorded on a surveillance camera telling someone on a phone call that he had shot somebody in the chest, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. Nixon\u2019s mother then picked him up and drove him away.<\/p>\n
Nixon addressed Webster\u2019s family Tuesday to apologize, saying he wished he could take back what had occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to kill him. I never wanted to hurt him,\u201d Nixon said. \u201cI was just scared and my body reacted before my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nixon said he encountered Webster by chance. He was carrying the gun because of previous run-ins with him, he said, and needed it for protection as he walked to a friend\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
Webster grabbed at his waistband as he confronted him, Nixon said. He believed Webster was reaching for a gun and reacted.<\/p>\n
Nixon said he had grown up in an abusive household and that made him \u201cperceive everything as a threat\u201d and grow anxious when people get too close to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying this as an excuse for my actions, because I know I deserve to be locked up for what I did,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t want to turn my life around, because I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webster\u2019s relatives, including his grandmother, Charlotte Webster, said that while they have not yet forgiven Nixon, they know that will come in time through their faith.<\/p>\n
Still, she said, the pain Nixon caused their family was devastating.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe this was a deliberate, heinous crime he committed,\u201d she said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t care about anything or anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min When Michael Nixon pulled the trigger on the handgun he was carrying last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[111332,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-263413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-michael-nixon-khalief-webster-murder-sentencing-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}