35 YEARS FOR SOME POOR KID WHO WAS PROBABLY SUFFERING FROM 'POST CIRCUMCISION STRESS DISORDER'?

I’m sure the advocates of leniency for child criminals are going to weep and wail over the length of the sentence meted out in this case. Personally, I think the little prick was lucky he didn’t get life.

DEPUTY WOUNDED BY [15-YEAR-OLD] SHOOTER LAUDS 35-YEAR TERM
By Mike Glenn

Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010

A part-time Harris County deputy constable said he was satisfied with the 35-year prison sentence imposed on the teenage car burglar who shot him.

“I'm glad he did get prison time and not let go,“ said the deputy, Tomas Infante.

Christopher Brunell was 15 when he shot Infante in December 2008 after the recent police academy graduate saw him and two others breaking into a neighbor's car. Brunell pulled out a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol and opened fire, striking Infante in the abdomen and right forearm.

“He started walking towards me and started blasting away,” Infante said.

Sheriff's detectives eventually found eight shell casings at the scene.

Taking cover behind the car, Infante watched as Brunell and the other two fled from the northwest Harris County neighborhood. As Infante lay bleeding on the ground, a thought popped into his mind.

“Man, I just graduated from the academy,” he recalled on Wednesday.

He couldn't walk for about three months after the shooting and required months of intensive physical therapy.

As Infante mended, the search for Brunell continued. An anonymous Crime Stoppers tip led to his arrest in mid-January 2009, Harris County prosecutors said.

“He gave a statement admitting that he fired the weapon,”' said Laura Killinger with the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Brunell was certified to stand trial as an adult. He pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and, on Wednesday, was given the 35-year sentence by Harris County District Judge Marc Carter.

“He didn't have any remorse. He didn't care if I died or not,” said the 36-year-old Infante, who attended the sentencing.

The shooting would delay Infante's plans to take his licensing exam to become a law enforcement officer.

Most prospective Texas police officers test immediately after completing academy training . He would take it seven months later.

“I passed it on the first go-round,” he said. “I was actually proud of myself.”

Infante was hired as a deputy last November by a Harris County Constable's Office.