14-year-old sentenced for fatally shooting man outside Fort Worth grocery store
A juvenile court judge sentenced a 14-year-old to 26 years Thursday for killing a man outside a Fort Worth grocery store in June, officials said.
The teen fatally shot Spenser Slavik, 36, in the chest on the morning of June 22 outside the Kroger located at 9144 Camp Bowie West Blvd. Fort Worth police confirmed his arrest on July 6.
The defendant was 13 at the time of the murder, which authorities said occurred during a robbery.
Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced the sentence in a tweet and thanked the police for their work investigating the case.
Judge Alex Kim accepted a plea agreement between the district attorney’s office and the defendant’s lawyers Thursday. Kim sentenced the teen to 26 years in the custody of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
Kim told the 14-year-old that the minimum period of confinement would be three years and because of his age, he could be released on parole for good behavior, KXAS-TV reported.
“If I feel like you have been rehabilitated, it does not matter how serious the offense is,” Kim said. “I have released children on parole even on offenses like capital murder because they are no longer a danger. The ones that continue to be a danger, in my opinion, because they did not take advantage of the services that we are offering, I will happily transfer them to the adult prison system to complete the remainder of your sentence. It’s entirely possible you will be in prison until your 40th birthday.”
The teen’s grandmother told KXAS-TV that nothing anyone says can bring Slavik back to his family.
“That pain is very much real. It’s there,” the grandmother said. “Nothing we say or do is ever going to bring that peace back for them. I hope it brings a little, just to know that we are deeply, deeply sorry.”
The defendant’s mother said her son wanted to apologize but couldn’t do it in court Thursday.
“He’s a very loving kid even though the situation probably don’t seem like it, but he is. He does care. He really does,” the mother told the NBC station.
Travis Dehorney, one of Slavik’s friends, also spoke in court Thursday. His friendship with Slavik saved him from suicide, according to KXAS-TV.
“You had nothing to do with the taking of his (Slavik’s) life, but someone you are connected to does,” Dehorney told the juvenile’s family. “I wish healing upon you.”
An online obituary said that Slavik was a Tarrant County native, who was born in Fort Worth and raised in White Settlement.
“Spenser loved working and helping people and worked at several places including the grocery business, the food industry and in the Fort Worth Stockyards. He loved being on a computer and was considered a whiz doing anything on them,” the obituary read. “He could take things apart and loved figuring out how they worked. He had a very high IQ and could figure things out very quickly before anyone else. Spenser was a loving son, brother, uncle, cousin and friend and will be deeply missed.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 9:48 AM.
