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Mother Of Slain Baseball Prospect Unleashes Grief, Rage During Sentencing

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A grief-stricken mother poured her heart out in a Westchester County courtroom on Wednesday, more than a year after her son was killed in a Burger King parking lot.

It was sentencing day for the men found guilty in his death.

With a photo of her son as a child just feet away, Donna Nolan summoned up a storm of grief and rage for the sentencing of his killers.

As CBS2's Lou Young reported, the year that has passed since his death has done little to ease her pain.

"All I'm thinking is how in God's name am I going to survive without my son? And now I want to know who and why they did this," she said.

Prosecutors said it was Tijmitra Singh's beef from an earlier drag race that prompted the drive by shooting in the parking lot of a Yonkers burger king in September 2015. Singh has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

There were four men in the car.

One of the six shots fired from the back seat by Nashawn Hunter hit Michael Nolan in the head -- mortally wounding the popular local athlete and Major League Baseball prospect.

Hunter's sentencing has been delayed until November.

Nolan's older brother said the pain of the crime is permanent.

"The headline says baseball player, but he was more than a baseball player. He was my little brother, their son, their friend," Jimmy Nolan said.

The family considered all of the defendants equally culpable, but Nelson had a special fury for Darren Dawson -- the front seat passenger in the car who at times portrayed himself as a bystander, and has seemed outwardly the least remorseful of the group.

She wasn't happy with his demeanor in court.

"When you roll your eyes like I'm annoying you, you don't like what I'm saying? Well you know what? I don't really give a damn what you feel or what you think," she said, "I don't want to hear about what you feel because I can tell by your cold, callous face you don't give a damn what you did to my son or what you did to my family."

Dawson has been given 9 years in prison. At the start of the proceedings. Nolan cautioned the defendants to never forget her son's name.

It seems unlikely they ever will.

The driver of the car, Garth Cole is set for sentencing in December. He was the last of the four defendants to make a plea deal.

 

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