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| Travion Blount |
(Scroll down for video) In a heartbreaking case, a 15-year-old was sentenced to 6 life sentences in prison.
Travion Blount of Norfolk, Virginia, has received what some call the toughest sentence yet for a child, who did not commit a murder.
Blount, who is now 23-years-old, was 15 at the time when he and two of his 18-year-old friends committed armed robbery during a house party.
One of the 18-year-old friends hit someone with the butt of a gun, but no shots were fired, according to the ACLU Center for Justice.
The two 18-year-olds pleaded guilty and accepted prison terms of 10 to 13 years.
Blount however, despite his lawyer’s advice, refused to take a deal of 18 years in prison, and decided to go to trial.
Blount was convicted of 24 counts and was sentenced to 6 life sentences plus 118 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
After sentencing, Blount said that he accepts full responsibility for his role in the theft.
However, he deeply regrets his decision of not taking the plea deal. He had not expected his friends to testify against him, and he did not believe that he would be sentenced to over 18 years in prison he was originally offered.
About 200 juvenile inmates across the United States, are serving life in prison without parole for a crime that did not involve a homicide, according to Ashley Nellis, a senior research analyst for The Sentencing Project.