Spencer Whitt (left) and Justin S. Schell will spend 15 years in prison.
By Tiffany Y. Latta
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — Two teenagers convicted of robbing and killing a 21-year-old Springfield man will spend the next 15 years in prison.
Spencer Whitt, 18, and Justin S. Schell, 17, were sentenced Friday in Clark County Common Pleas Court in separate hearings that the victim’s family said brought some closure to their lives after the March 5 death of Rick D. Scott Jr.
“We’ve got a wound that’s never, ever going to heal. But this brings closure to a degree,” the victim’s father, Rick Scott Sr. said.
Judge Richard O’Neill sentenced Whitt to 15 years to life in prison one day after the teen pleaded guilty to a murder charge as part of a plea agreement in which aggravated robbery charges were dropped.
Schell, who received a plea deal in May after agreeing to testify against Whitt, was sentenced to 15 years on involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery charges.
Whitt and Schell were convicted in the shooting death of Rick D. Scott Jr. in the chest in the 1000 block of North Fountain Avenue near Cecil Street, about 200 feet from his home.
Jonathan D. Kittle, 18, who prosecutors say was the gunman, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges for his role in Scott’s death and was sentenced in May to 20 years to life in prison, according to court documents.
During Schell’s hearing, he turned to the Scott family and apologized.
“I’m sorry for my involvement in your son’s death and I’m sorry you lost your son,” Schell said.
The apology was the only one issued by any of the three defendants and was therapeutic for his mother, Lisa, who expressed relief now that all three of the men involved in her son’s death have been sentenced.
“It’s closure. We can now move on with our lives,” Lisa Scott, 46, said.
Schell’s apology also was appreciated by the victim’s grandparents, Robert and Janice Scott, and his father.
But Rick Scott Sr. said an apology does little to ease the pain the “senseless” act caused him and his family.