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Babysitter involved in 2016 shooting death of Mt. Pleasant teen gets paroled | TribLIVE.com
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Babysitter involved in 2016 shooting death of Mt. Pleasant teen gets paroled

Rich Cholodofsky
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Brooke Nelson, a former babysitter from Ruffsdale was paroled Friday.
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Brooke Nelson, a former babysitter from Ruffsdale was paroled Friday.

Mark Gustafson didn’t want to hear that the woman who gave a teen access to the gun used to kill his 13-year-old son was ready to go home after spending just more than 10 months behind bars.

“The family feels that 9-1/2 to 11-1/2 months is not enough time. She is solely responsible for the death of my son,” Gustafson said Friday during a parole hearing for Brooke Nelson, who pleaded guilty last year to five counts each of child endangerment and reckless endangerment in connection with the March 2016 shooting death of James Robert “J.R.” Gustafson.

Despite the objections, Nelson, now 21, was paroled Friday by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway. Nelson was sentenced last year to serve 11-1/2 to 23 months in jail. After receiving credit for good behavior while at the county jail, she has since reached her parole date, according Assistant District Attorney Tom Grace.

Hathaway said she routinely grants parole without a hearing in cases where a minimum sentence has been reached, but she wanted to hear from the Gustafson family.

“No matter what I do here it will never bring back the victim,” Hathaway said.

Gustafson was shot in a Mt. Pleasant home by John Burnsworth III, his 14-year-old friend. Nelson, then 18, of Ruffsdale, was babysitting three other children, all under the age of 8, at the South Church Street home where the shooting occurred.

Police said Nelson gave Burnsworth the gun and told him to use the weapon to scare Gustafson away. Burnsworth, in a prior court appearance, said the gun discharged. Gustafson was shot in the face.

During Friday’s hearing, Mark Gustafson said his family objected to Nelson being sent home even though she had served her minimum sentence.

“She was the one who provided the gun,” Gustafson said.

Nelson did not speak during the hearing other than to say that when released she would return to her home in Ruffsdale.

Defense attorney Jack Mandarino said Nelson had no misconducts while in jail, where she completed work to receive her GED, a requirement of the judge’s sentence.

“She’s had a lot of time to think and she feels badly,” Mandarino said.

Nelson was the fourth person connected to Gustafson’s death to be prosecuted.

Burnsworth, now 17, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in juvenile court. After serving more than a year in a Cambria County reform school, he was sent home last May.

Joshua Hudec, 33, of Mt. Pleasant, pleaded guilty in 2017 to the same charges Nelson faced. Police said Hudec owned the gun used in the shooting and lived in the home where the weapon was left with the children. He was sentenced to 11-12 to 23 months in jail.

Kristopher Lewis, 47, of Mt. Pleasant, pleaded guilty to a weapons offense for illegally selling the gun to Hudec. He was sentenced to two years’ probation.

Rich Cholodofsky is a TribLive reporter covering Westmoreland County government, politics and courts. He can be reached at rcholodofsky@triblive.com.

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Categories: Local | Westmoreland
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