Man pleads guilty in shooting of girl, 6PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh man has pleaded guilty to a shooting last summer that killed a 6-year-old girl.Twenty-year-old Kamau Thomas Jr. pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of 15 to 40 years in prison.Thomas told police he was firing shots toward a home’s roof on July 18 to scare another man who’d threatened him. One of the bullets struck Isis Allen, who died two days later after being taken off life support.At the hearing, Thomas apologized to Isis’ family, as well as to his own.According to a criminal complaint, Thomas said he was unaware he shot the girl in the head until later.Thomas told police the gun’s trigger was sensitive and “it started going crazy. The gun kept going off until it was empty.”

Court panel says prison term is fairERIE — A state court panel says a Pennsylvania man caught driving without a license 22 times got the punishment he deserved.Randy Stallsmith had claimed that his 3- to 6-month prison term was excessive for driving offense No. 22 in 2015. He pleaded guilty to driving without a license.A state Superior Court panel upheld the sentence, saying the 49-year-old Erie County man’s past behavior sank his appeal.Stallsmith appealed to the Superior Court because a county judge wouldn’t allow him to serve his time on work release.Stallsmith argued he should’ve received a lighter sentence since he took responsibility for his actions.The panel agreed with the county judge, saying with 22 offenses already on his record, Stallsmith “provided no indication that his aberrant conduct would cease.”

Police say teen took selfie after shootingGREENSBURG — A trial is under way for an 18-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of fatally shooting a friend in the face and then taking a selfie with the victim’s body.Two officers testified Tuesday that Maxwell Morton, then 16, showed little emotion or concern about the Feb. 2015 shooting of 16-year-old Ryan Mangan.Westmoreland County Detective James Williams told jurors “when he described pulling the trigger, he had a little smirk on his face.”Police contend Morton took a photograph of himself with Mangan’s body minutes after the shooting and an hour later sent the image via Snapchat while he played online video games with a teen in Wisconsin.The defense has argued that the teens were playing with the gun and it accidentally fired.The judge ruled Monday the selfie can be seen by the jury.