Just three weeks after a jury found Darnell Dennison not guilty of the most serious offenses he faced in connection with a shooting incident that left a Jeannette teen without an eye, he was charged in another shooting, this time suffering an injury himself.

“After the jury trial, I was prepared to cut you some slack here, but my mind was changed after seeing what has happened,” Westmoreland County Judge Tim Krieger said during Dennison’s sentencing hearing Monday. “A young man lost his eye, and you had to know you were looking at serious jail time. I have to do something more than slap you on the wrist, because you don’t get it.”

The judge ordered Dennison, 20, of Pittsburgh, to serve 111⁄2 to 23 months in jail for the June 9, 2017, shooting in Jeannette that left a 13-year-old permanently disfigured after an incident on South Sixth Street.

Dennison, formerly of Greensburg, was 16 when he was charged as an adult with two counts each of aggravated and simple assault and one reckless endangerment charge.

During a two-day trial in March, a Westmoreland County jury found Dennison guilty of two misdemeanor counts of simple assault. They acquitted him of the more serious felony offenses.

Prosecutors said Dennison was a passenger in a car that drove up to a group of teens, pointed a gun out the window and fired. The victim was hit in the face with BBs, which caused injuries requiring the surgical removal of his eye.

The defense claimed the shooting was an accident and was the result of a game played among teens who used BB guns to shoot at one another. The prosecution said the victim was not a participant in the game.

Less than a month after the jury returned that verdict, police said Dennison shot a 17-year-old male on April 6 in a parking lot outside an apartment complex on West Hills Drive in Hempfield as part of a botched deal to buy marijuana. Police said Dennison spotted a gun in the waistband of his teenage customer and a struggle ensued. Both participants were wounded.

Dennison was not apprehended until a week after the incident, according to court records.

As part of a deal approved earlier this month, Dennison pleaded guilty to drug offenses, illegal possession of a gun and reckless endangerment in connection with the April shooting . Prosecutors dismissed the aggravated assault counts, and Dennison was sentenced to serve 4 to 23 months in jail.

In court Monday, Assistant District Attorney Allen Powanda asked that Dennison serve a substantial sentence in state prison for the Jeannette shooting.

“I’m not sure what the court can do to rehabilitate Mr. Dennison,” Powanda said.

The defense argued for a short jail term and probation sentence.

Dennison said he wants to be a changed man.

“I apologize to the victim. I do want to put it in the past. I have two kids now, and I want to build me a better life and be there for my kids,” Dennison said.

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