Friends Of Murdered Teen Protest Reduction Of Killer's Sentence

MIAMI (CBSMiami) –  In 2009 the Mayoral family applauded a judge's decision to sentence then 19-year-old Joshua Ladson to 30 years for shooting and killing their loved one, 14-year-old Giovanny Mayoral. Police say Mayoral was shot in the back while riding his dirt bike in an apartment complex in south Miami-Dade.

The family of a slain teenager protested the re-sentencing of their loved one's killer today in front of the Metro Justice Building for hours Monday afternoon.

They later arrested Joshua Ladson, who was 16 at the time, and charged him with 2nd degree murder. Although the shooting happened in 2006, it wasn't until 2009 that a jury convicted Ladson of a lesser manslaughter charge.

On July 25, a different judge cut Ladson's sentence in half after the Public Defender petitioned for a lighter sentence, saying Ladson deserved a second chance.

"It's frustrating," said Madelyn Mayoral, the victim's mother. "My son didn't get a second chance, why should he be able to get a second chance? For what, so he can go out in the street and kill another person?"

Mayoral said the pain of losing her son is constant and now compounded by the thought of her son's killer getting out of prison early.

"I felt hopeless, out of control, like no matter how much I begged her [the new judge], how much I showed her what I was going through, the devastation it has caused me and my family, she showed no sympathy whatsoever," said Mayoral.

Mayoral and about a dozen family members protested the most recent sentencing outside the Metro Justice Building.

"Justice for Giovanny, justice for Giovanny," the victim's family and friends chanted.

"If she [the new judge] cannot do her job and punish people for the crime they commit, then she should step down," said Mayoral. "A murderer cannot get a second chance.  A murderer should do their time!"