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Man gets life for killing boy reading Bible

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The mother of an 11-year-old boy who was shot while reading his Bible spoke to Channel 2's Craig Lucie about the man who pulled the trigger.

Monday marked the third year anniversary of Nicholas Sheffey's death. He was in his bedroom when three people shot up his home, hitting and eventually killing him.

The man who pulled the trigger just received a prison sentence of life without parole, plus 675 years. Lucie was there when the lead prosecutor on the case gave Sheffey's mother, Debora Rider, something she always wanted back.

"As we prepared for the case, Mrs. Rider said how much she wanted the Bible back, and we look forward (to) giving (it) back today," Michael Scott Carlson said as he walked over to Rider.

Rider immediately started to cry when she saw the small, orange Bible that was found next to Sheffey when he was murdered. Cody Bauer pleaded guilty Friday receiving life without parole, plus 675 years. He was 18 at the time of the crime. 

"It was well over more than what I could have imagined," Rider told Lucie about the sentence.

Investigators said Sheffey's older brother robbed Alexander Sidloskas, and Sidloskas had known gang members (Bauer and Stedmund Anthony) seek revenge.

"The one promise I made to my son when he was laying in the hospital bed was that justice would prevail and it did," Rider said.

Dekalb County's District Attorney Robert James said Bauer's sentence sends a strong message to gang members.

"There are consequences for your actions and those consequences aren't a slap on your wrist. It's imprisonment, serious imprisonment," James said.

Sheffey's brother is serving a five-year sentence for the robbery that led to the shooting.

Anthony and Sidlokas both pleaded guilty and received 50 years in prison.

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