AUGUSTA, Maine — A 19-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison for a drive-by shooting that seriously injured a 7-year-old girl in Waterville last year.
"Today I am here to take responsibility and hold myself accountable for one of the most cowardly acts a person could commit," Gavin Loabe said in the courtroom.
Last month, Loabe pleaded guilty to shooting five times into a Waterville house last year. One of the bullets hit Emahleeah Frost, then seven years old. Her younger sister, Amber, watched it happen.
"You have robbed them of their innocence," Emahleeah's father said in court.
Emahleeah has recovered but still has the bullet in her body and some pain,
Loabe's father also spoke in the courtroom, telling Justice William Stokes about his son.
"I just want it known that Gavin does have a kind and caring heart and in no way shape or form would he intentionally hurt or injure an innocent child," he said.
Loabe spoke directly to the Frost family.
"I am sorry for hurting your little girl, from the bottom of my heart I am," he said.
"They did tell me that they thought Mr. Loabe's apology was sincere," Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said of the victim's family.
NEWS CENTER Maine spoke to Loabe's attorney, Lisa Whittier, by phone after the sentencing. She said she was disappointed, and her client is scared to be going to Maine State Prison. Whittier argued for a four-year sentence so Loabe would qualify for the Youth Offender Program, but with the eight-year sentence and four years of probation, he does not qualify at this time.
Loabe could face up to 15 years in prison but has to serve the eight years first. If he violates any bail conditions during his four-year probation period, he would then serve the remaining seven years.