"We just feel like we were failed": Family of Jahmari Rice speaks out after Alfredo Solis aquitted of murder
RICHFIELD, Minn. -- The family of a 15-year-old killed during a school shooting in Richfield is speaking out after one of the two men charged with his killing is acquitted of the most serious charge leveled against him.
Alfredo Solis was found guilty of assault, but not murder. And as Reg Chapman reports, Rice's family feels betrayed by the judicial system.
Pictures of Jahmari Rice fill every room in the family home.
"He would have been right here with us the constant thoughts of that the holidays he would have been right here going through Christmas it was just really he didn't come in the New Year with us," said Jasmine Hollins.
Their grief is apparent when they speak about the young man who had big dreams.
"He not coming home from school, he's not coming in, 'Hey Tee Tee, what's up,' coming in, 'Hey, Mom.' He called her Mom," Hollins said.
Jahmari's aunt and grandmother who had custody of him and raised him are struggling.
"I miss him a lot. I thought once he was gone and going to the school he would be back and by twelve o'clock I heard that he was gone," said Lucille Matias.
In February of last year, a week after Jahmari transferred to South Education Center in Richfield, tragedy struck.
Witnesses told police it appeared a fight was about to start until a gun was pulled and shots rang out. Jahmari was killed, and two other students were injured.
Days later, Alfredo Solis and Fernando Alvarez were arrested and charged with Jahmari's murder.
First to go on trial, Solis was acquitted on the murder charge, but found guilty of assault and sentenced to 3 years behind bars.
"Solis you are a very lucky man I suggest that you take that luck and run with it through the rest of your life, "said Hennepin County District Court Judge Paul Scoggin.
"We're disappointed in the judicial system here in Minnesota we just feel like we were failed. Somebody needs to be held accountable here," Hollins said.
"It just didn't happen the way we thought it would happen just a big disappointment," Matias said.
Solis has already served half his sentence and could be a free man in less than two years.
Alvarez' trial has been pushed back to next month.