Eight years after her teen daughter's murder, Mary Graham-Fisher says she's grateful for a judge's decision.
"This doesn't bring her back," Graham-Fisher acknowledged, but she noted her daughter "Lindsey's voice" was heard on Tuesday.
Seven family members and one friend spoke on behalf of 17-year-old Lindsey Graham in a downtown Miami courtroom. Her ex-boyfriend was convicted of manslaughter with a weapon and firing into a dwelling after gunning down Graham through her bedroom window in Palmetto Bay in August 2004.
Graham-Fisher was outraged when a jury reduced an original first-degree murder charge and convicted 29-year-old Larry Williams of manslaughter instead. She started an online petition to draw attention to her daughter's cause, and advocate for maximum punishment for murderers.
"It is what it is," Judge Leon Firtel said of the jury's decision.
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Williams sat silently, staring blankly ahead as family members spoke and often addressed him. "You should be man enough to serve full sentence," Graham-Fisher told him. "You earned it."
Judge Firtel told Williams he "committed a senseless act, for which there is no excuse." Firtel added "you should have the responsibility of thinking about what you've done every day for the rest of your life."
He sentenced Williams to 45 consecutive years in state prison. Williams has already served 8 years in custody.
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