A Tucson man who pleaded guilty to negligent homicide was sentenced to 7½ years in prison on Monday.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Paul Tang sentenced Nathan Horton to prison for the 2010 crime.
Horton pleaded guilty to shooting and killing Toney Okafor. A jury trial in which Horton faced first-degree murder charges ended in a hung jury in November 2013.
Horton was acquitted of an attempted murder charge in that trial.
“Toney, by all accounts, was a good guy,” said Deputy Pima County Attorney Mark Diebolt.
Horton shot and killed Okafor and was accused of wounding another man, Matthew Beale, in retaliation following a dispute the men had in February 2010.
At trial, Diebolt argued Horton lay in waiting at his house for Okafor and Beale, whom he had a confrontation with earlier the night of the shooting.
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Beale had argued with Horton, accusing the defendant of affiliation with a rival gang because of the color of his clothing.
Diebolt said Horton shot each man in the back.
“The two victims were shot multiple times while running away,” he said on Monday.
Defense attorney Jill Thorpe said her client never intended to kill, let alone fight, anyone.
“Nate wasn’t hiding in the bushes in this nefarious way as Mr. Diebolt is describing,” Thorpe said.
Rather, she said her client feared Beale who earlier on the night of the shooting had threatened to return to the house with a gun.
“I think my client’s perception of what Matthew Beale was capable of was very well founded,” Thorpe said.
Horton will serve his sentence concurrent with an eight-year armed robbery and aggravated assault sentence he’s already serving. He was given more than three years credit for time served on the negligent homicide conviction.
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