Delia D'Ambra

We have less than one week to try to prevent this injustice from happening.

Who can say that Wisnett won't go out and take another innocent life?

Who knows?

It could be a family member slash friend of yours.'"

We must try to prevent this from happening, end quote.

On February 28th, 1997, the Newtons presented their petition, which by that point had garnered more than 2,100 signatures to the district attorney's office.

All of the supporters who'd signed it were opposed to Troy getting a plea deal, but the effort did not sway the DA's mind.

At the end of April, Troy was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to just 11 months in prison after being given credit for time served.

Attorneys for the state presented in court the high-level sequence of events that they said law enforcement believed had occurred between Troy and Shane on the night of the crime.

Shane and Troy were hanging out by themselves at Shane's place after he'd just run off a group of friends who'd gotten into a fight.

While Shane reached into a drawer inside his trailer to grab something, Troy saw a .38 revolver sitting inside the drawer and for reasons unknown to anyone, picked the gun up and shot Shane in the back of his head.

Then he stole the weapon, took Shane's car and drove around for a while before eventually trading the gun for money and then returning Shane's vehicle back to the trailer.

After that, Troy hitchhiked to his sister's home and fell asleep until the following afternoon.

The court's decision to give leniency to Troy was heart-wrenching to Shane's family.

It seemed that everything Shirley Newton had initially feared would happen, did.

In response to the court's decision and Troy's actions, Shane's father stated, quote,

He had sense enough to drive a vehicle.

He should have had sense enough to get help for Shane.

It seems the system is more for the defendant than the victim and the family."

Shane's mom surely emphasized that in her opinion, Troy knew exactly what he was doing when he shot her son and that drugs and alcohol use could not excuse his behavior.