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A West Valley City man who fatally shot his stepfather in 2012 pleaded guilty Friday to manslaughter and felony discharge of a firearm.
Rosco Dewayne Brackett, who was a week short of his 17th birthday when he killed James Michael George, is scheduled to be sentenced May 15 by District Court Katie Bernards-Goodman.
Brackett, now 19, faces a sentence of 1 to 15 years on the manslaughter charge, a second-degree felony, and five years to life on the first-degree felony firearm charge.
Brackett, who was charged as an adult, initially faced charges of first-degree felony murder, felony discharge of a firearm and obstructing justice in the Sept. 13, 2012, shooting.
Charging documents allege he hid the gun and tossed the shirt he was wearing after the shooting at a home near 3700 South and 6800 West, where the teen lived with his mother and George.
According to police, Brackett changed his story about what happened during an argument with his stepfather about school and his efforts to get his GED, first claiming he was in the room but had nothing to do with the shooting and then saying he had pulled the trigger.
Charging documents allege that when George walked away, Brackett got a gun from the front room and shot at his stepfather but missed him. The teen then shot George in the head and several more times after he fell to the floor, charging documents state. George, 52, died the next day at a hospital.
Brackett told police he thought George was going to get a gun when he walked away and that he fired a warning shot over his stepfather's head.
Family members of the victim testified at a 2013 preliminary hearing that Brackett and his stepfather had a "strained" relationship. Gina George, Brackett's mother, said her husband never much cared for her son, whom he saw as "baggage."
She characterized her husband as controlling and demanding — a man who did not want her to work and refused to let her leave the house after he returned home for the evening. At the time James George was killed, the woman said, she had been planning to leave with her son and return to her family in Missouri.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC