NORFOLK, Va. — A Norfolk man was sentenced to serve five years for a 2023 incident that killed a 14-year-old.
Albert James Sutton was sentenced on Friday in Norfolk Circuit Court.
He was charged with recklessly handling a firearm and involuntary manslaughter for accidentally shooting and killing 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.
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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.
