PITTSBURGH
The gunman who wounded five Duquesne University basketball players after a school dance last year pleaded guilty Friday and will spend up to 40 years in prison.
William B. Holmes III, 19, of Pittsburgh, shot players Sam Ashaolu, Shawn James, Kojo Mensah, Aaron Jackson and Stuard Baldonado on campus on Sept. 17, 2006.
Holmes had gone to the dance with two women. One woman flirted with some basketball players, leading to an argument after which Holmes and another man, Derek Scott Lee, 19, of Pittsburgh, opened fire.
Holmes was sentenced to 18 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted homicide and aggravated assault charges. Lee was sentenced to seven to 14 years after pleading guilty to the same charges Tuesday.
Lee received the lesser sentence because Allegheny County prosecutors determined that he fired two shots, neither of which hit anybody.
“None of the bullets that were surgically removed from the basketball players were identified as being fired from Derek Lee,” Assistant District Attorney Mark Tranquilli told reporters after Holmes’ guilty plea. “All of the bullets that were fired, that were removed, that hit these basketball players were from Mr. Holmes and that’s why Mr. Holmes’ sentence was essentially double Mr. Lee’s.”
