A teenager who fatally shot a 19-year-old pregnant woman in a car outside her apartment building was sentenced to life in prison, after he admitted in court for the first time that he pulled the trigger.
Corey Spencer, who is now 17, has been incarcerated in a youth detention facility since he was 14, when he fatally shot Kera Teel, according to The Beaumont Enterprise. At age 15, he was certified to stand trial as an adult and was charged with capital murder.
Spencer was breaking into cars at the apartment complex when Teel and her mother were returning home. Spencer said he fired because he was scared after opening their car door and finding them inside.
"It wasn't intentional," Spencer said. "I opened the car and I was shaking. She ended up reaching for me and it happened."
In court on Wednesday, Judge Raquel West said Spencer had been in and out of juvenile detention for burglaries since he was 10 years old. He was also part of a group with his cousin and another male that were involved in a series of car burglaries and robberies in the summer of 2017.
Spencer will be moved to a facility for youthful offenders in Huntsville. As soon as he turns 18, he will move to a more secure prison in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
