A judge in Fairfax County, Virginia, sentenced a man to life in prison for shooting and killing his friend before shooting a stranger, blinding the man.

Kebbren Leigh-Gaye, who was just 18 years old, died after the Jan. 8, 2022, shooting on Richmond Highway (Highway 1) at Dart Drive in the Hybla Valley area. It was a friend of the shooter, Jordan Cochran, then 20, who then turned on a complete stranger and shot him in the eye.

Testimony at the trial revealed that Cochran and Leigh-Gaye got into a fistfight at a bus stop over a pair of shoes. Prosecutors said the fight was over and the two men separated when Cochran pulled out a gun and fired one shot, killing Leigh-Gaye.

A witness said Cochran grabbed the shoes from Leigh-Gaye’s feet, as well as her wallet and phone. About 20 minutes later, at the 7-Eleven in the 3100 block of Lockheed Boulevard, Cochran demanded a ride from a stranger. The man refused and Cochran shot him in the face, prosecutors said.

Officers found Cochran in the parking lot of a nearby Taco Bell with a gun.

Cochran apologized in court Thursday, saying, “There aren’t enough words in English to express how sorry I am for what happened.” I lost a friend who I considered a brother.

The judge, saying police video shows Cochran poses a “major danger” to the community, ordered the harshest sentence.

“For me, it’s a feeling of justice being served,” said Leigh-Gaye’s father, Kebba Gaye.

“It doesn’t bring my son back, but I’m just relieved,” said his mother, Karen Leigh. “But it’s still, I still have the pain in my heart and it will always be there.”

Leigh-Gaye’s parents say that since he was a child, their son was outgoing and caring.

“Everyone he touched or became friends with was like glue to him,” his father said.

“These are my first two bodies”

Police video captured Cochran’s disturbing conversation with a police officer after the shooting.

“You just killed someone,” the officer said.

“Two people!” Two people! Do you hear me? Two!” Cochran shouted.

He seemed to believe he had killed the two men he had shot.

“I finally killed someone,” he said. “These are my first two bodies.”

“I killed two (racial slur). I proved what I had to prove,” he later added.

He knocked for police and said he feared being jailed.

“Honestly, I’m scared,” he said in a video. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. This is my first time in the big boys’ prison.

“It still haunts me to this day having to watch that video,” Karen Leigh told News4 on Thursday.

Leigh-Gaye was a recent graduate of Mount Vernon High School, where he played on the football team.

His father testified that just two days before the shooting, his son brought Cochran home and asked if he could stay for a few days after being kicked out of his own home. When the father learned Cochran had a gun, he asked him to leave.

The fatal shootings occurred the next day.

“All we worked hard for was to turn Kebbren around, but his kindness ended up killing him,” Leigh-Gaye’s father said.

Cochran’s defense

Cochran’s defense attorneys tried to convince jurors that he fired in self-defense and was scared after the fight.

“Without malice, there is no murder… When you are beaten at a bus stop by a guy you thought was your friend, your mind is no longer in a state of reason,” a lawyer said .

But the prosecutor retorted: “A reasonable person does not pull out a gun just because he lost a fight. »

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Prosecutors also pointed out something else Cochran said in the video: “I spent all day clicking this joint and I finally killed someone.”

Prosecutors said the comment showed the crime was premeditated, with prosecutor Stephen Eubank telling jurors: “Jordan Cochran was looking for a reason to use this weapon and in less than half an hour he found two.”

Cochran will be eligible for parole at age 60. The judge told him that the keys to his release were in his hands.