Teen gets 60 years for stabbing a classmate

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 17, 2007

ORLANDO - A 17-year-old boy was sentenced to 60 years in prison for fatally stabbing a classmate at a high school bus stop.

Circuit Judge Marc Lubet sentenced Kelvin De La Cruz on Friday. A jury convicted the teenager of second-degree murder in April for stabbing 15-year-old Michael Nieves.

De La Cruz was spared a mandatory life sentence when the jury passed on a first-degree murder conviction.

Authorities said the argument began at lunch over a girl and continued at a bus stop on the University High School campus in October.

De La Cruz maintains that he stabbed Nieves in self-defense. His lawyers have a hearing scheduled Friday for a motion for a new trial.

De La Cruz's mother and older sister sobbed as the sentence was read.

"You think 60 years is better than life in prison, but no, " his older sister, Claribel Ramirez, said afterward. "For us and my family, in a way my brother is dead, too."

"Justice was served, " said Carmen Salicrup, the slain boy's mother.

[Last modified June 17, 2007, 00:18:27]