TULSA, OKLAHOMA: Noah Ney, a 16-year-old baby-faced ‘gangster’ whose parents also had a long criminal history, has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for shooting a 5-year-old girl in the neck during an April 2022 drive-by incident.
Ney was sentenced as an adult on Monday, October 23 after he pleaded guilty to 12 counts involving firearms, drugs, gangs, theft, and assault.
News reports have not divulged Noah's parents' names but it is reported that both had a long criminal history, with his father being repeatedly imprisoned.
While acknowledging that her son is violent to both people and animals, Ney's mother claimed that she was to blame for her son's actions.
Notwithstanding his aunt's assertions that he had been neglected throughout his youth, testimony presented to the court indicated that Ney's behavior had gotten worse while living with both his aunt and grandmother.
“A neighbor testified to Noah causing havoc in the neighborhood by wearing gang colors and carrying guns and knives, and often pulling them on neighbors while threatening them,” Assistant Tulsa County District Attorney Morgan Medders told the court, according to Daily Mail.
“While several extended family members appeared at the certification hearing, those same people have been available to Noah throughout his extensive juvenile history and that did not appear to make a difference,” he continued.
Why did Noah Ney kill the little girl?
Ney already had a criminal record dating back to his middle school years when he shot the five-year-old girl as part of what the court heard was an initiation into the town's Hoover Crips gang.
The little girl was playing inside her North Rockford Avenue home when Ney pulled up in a stolen car. He then fired a handgun at the house, hitting her in the shoulder and neck.
“There were multiple people in the line of fire during the drive-by shooting,” Medders told the court.
“The five-year-old was transported to hospital by EMSA because of the severity of her injuries and a difference of an inch or two in the penetrating gunshot wounds to the child could have resulted in her death,” he continued.
The assistant DA also emphasized Ney's pattern of rejecting treatment and his propensity for violence. "I have treatment records in a packet thicker than a dictionary showing treatment attempts that he rejected, by escaping or assaulting staff that were there to help him," he stated.
Ney’s sentencing came nearly two months after he escaped from a Tulsa juvenile detention center where he had assaulted staff, flooded his cell, and smeared feces on the walls.
The daring escape prompted a massive manhunt, which led to his arrest three days later outside a convenience store.
Community relieved after Noah Ney’s sentencing
The case has provoked an array of reactions from the public; some have expressed relief at the long sentence, while others have questioned Ney's family's accountability.
"This might be the signal that more of our youth offenders need that if you commit the crime you'll do the time!" wrote Ronnie Jo Bingham on Facebook.
"Old enough to do adult crimes," Debbie McAfee said, adding, "His age shouldn't be taken into consideration when deciding his sentence."
Some people, thinking back to the difficult teen's early years, also felt sympathy for him. "Breaks my heart. This little boy played on the same team as my son in elementary. He was so sweet then," stated JamiLea Gifford, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
