A simmering dispute between two 15-year-old boys turned deadly at a Turners Station playground last August, according to Baltimore County prosecutors.
Jalen Parrish attacked Timothy Hall with a thin metal pole at the park on Avondale Road, they said. The fight moved into the street, where prosecutors said Parrish plunged a knife into Hall's heart.
Parrish, charged as an adult, pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Nancy M. Purpura sentenced him Wednesday to 30 years in prison with 10 years suspended, plus five years of supervised probation after release. She recommended that Parrish attend a program for youthful offenders at the Patuxent Institution.
Parrish, now 16, was initially charged with first-degree murder, for which he could have been sentenced to life in prison. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of a plea agreement.
Prosecutor Adam Lippe said the boys had once been friends, but argued that that ended after Hall was accused of stealing food from a refrigerator on the back porch of Parrish's home that summer.
The killing was "a consequence of youthful impulsiveness and a lack of respect for the victim," Lippe said after the sentencing hearing.
At his sentencing, Parrish apologized for his actions. His attorney, Timothy Knepp, said his client "was truly sorry for the pain and suffering" he had caused.
It's terrible that what might have been simply a teenage fight over something "silly and childish" ended in death, Knepp said. "This was just a tragedy for both parties involved."
Hall's mother, Daphne Tull, said after the sentencing that the period since her son's death has "been hell."
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