NORFOLK, Va. — Editor's Note: Video above is from September 2023.
A local man pleaded guilty this week in an incident that killed a 14-year-old Norview Middle School student last year.
Albert James Sutton, 27, pleaded guilty Monday to charges of recklessly handling a firearm and involuntary manslaughter. He accidentally shot and killed Amir Anthony Burnett on Sept. 3 last year.
According to a Commonwealth’s Attorney press release, Sutton was supervising a group of about a dozen children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers inside a home on Wyngate Drive while other adults were out running errands. He had a gun with him and was showing it to the children in an upstairs bedroom when he unintentionally pulled the trigger, the press release stated. The single round hit Amir in his chest and went through the wall of the bedroom at the Crown Point Townhomes complex.
Sutton then fled the home with the gun, leaving the other children to call 911 and attempt to help Amir. Norfolk Police arrived to find the children unsupervised and Amir unresponsive. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at Sentara Leigh Hospital.
Sutton returned to the home when officers contacted him and directed him to return to the home. He admitted bringing the gun to the home but initially tried to blame one of the children for pulling the trigger. He eventually confessed to mistakenly firing it himself, claiming it went off when he was attempting to put it back in his waistband.
Sutton’s sentencing is set for Oct. 25.
“Every gun owner has a legal and moral obligation to handle their guns safely and to protect children from them,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “When a gun owner kills another person through their own recklessness, they have committed a criminal homicide, and we will hold them responsible. We extend our continued condolences to the family of this child, and we will seek a sentence for Mr. Sutton that fits his crime.”
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