Linda Rice stood distraught at the front of the courtroom.
Her son, Allen Stevens, was shot dead last year in Pittsburgh’s East Hills section while picking up his 6-year-old child during a custody exchange with the boy’s mother.
On Wednesday, the shooter, Trevon Taylor, pleaded guilty in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
Before Taylor was sentenced, Rice described to the judge the pain he caused her family, especially her grandson, who heard the shot and watched his father collapse.
“This has been so hard,” Rice said.
The she turned to face Taylor.
“Trevon, I want to tell you, baby, I forgive you,” Rice said. “At the bottom of my heart, I really do. You’re just a young man. I truly forgive you, sweetie.”
Taylor, 21, of East Hills pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment before Judge Randal B. Todd.
He will serve 6 1/2 to 13 years in prison.
Police were called to East Hills Drive just after 11 a.m. on Sept. 23 for a report of a man who had been shot.
They arrived to find Stevens, 37, of Braddock shot in the chest.
He died a short time later at the hospital.
Initially, according to the criminal complaint, the child’s mother, who was dating Taylor, claimed she had shot Stevens with a shotgun.
However, she later told detectives that was not true.
According to the complaint, she answered her door with the shotgun in her hand. She set it on the dining room table before going upstairs to get their child for the custody exchange.
While on the second floor, she told police, she heard Stevens say to Taylor, “‘I’ve been shot before, I’m not afraid of that gun.’”
She heard a single shot.
When the woman went back downstairs, she said, both men were gone, as was the shotgun.
Police did not name the woman in the complaint.
Video footage from the area showed Stevens leaving the house holding his chest before he collapsed. It showed Taylor running from the apartment complex carrying the shotgun.
Detectives found the weapon a short time later in bushes near an apartment building. A security officer identified Taylor, who was arrested two days later.
During the hearing Wednesday, Taylor, who had no previous criminal history, apologized.
“I am deeply, truly sorry for what transpired for the family,” he said. “I’m just glad she’s able to forgive me. I’m grateful.”
As sheriff’s deputies led Taylor from the room, he looked at the Stevens family, nodded his head, and mouthed two words.
“Thank you.”
