The 16-year-old from Oklahoma, Noah Ney, who shot a little girl in the neck and terrorized his victims, has been sentenced to 50 years in jail. The victims can now breathe a sigh of relief after the baby-faced gangster was jailed as an adult for the 2022 shooting. The court was informed that Ney knows the difference between right and wrong but has ‘no amenability to treatment’.
Ney, who stands at 4ft 9in, was jailed on Monday, two months after he escaped from a Tulsa juvenile detention center. During his time in detention, he had assaulted staff, flooded his cell, and smeared feces on the walls. The daring escape was short-lived, and Ney was soon apprehended and brought to justice. The sentence handed down to Ney serves as a warning to other young offenders that their actions have consequences, and they will be held accountable for their crimes.
Assistant Tulsa County District Attorney Morgan Medders stated that the treatment records of the accused were voluminous, thicker than a dictionary. These records showed numerous attempts at treatment that the accused had rejected, often by assaulting or escaping from the staff that were there to help him. The records were a testament to the accused’s history of violence and criminal behavior.
The accused, Ney, had a long criminal record that stretched back to his middle school years. In April of last year, he shot a five-year-old girl as part of an initiation into the Hoover Crips gang. The court heard that Ney’s actions were a result of his violent tendencies and his association with the gang. The treatment records presented in court showed that Ney had a history of rejecting help and resorting to violence, making it clear that he was a danger to society.
According to Medders’ statement in Tulsa District Court, several individuals were in harm’s way during the drive-by shooting. The incident occurred while a young girl was playing inside her residence on North Rockford Avenue. The perpetrator drove by in a stolen vehicle and fired a gun at the house, striking the child in the neck and shoulder. The severity of her injuries necessitated transportation to the hospital by EMSA. Medders emphasized that the difference of a mere inch or two in the gunshot wounds could have resulted in the child’s death.
Ney, who was awaiting sentencing for the shooting, along with another inmate, managed to scale the fence of the Tulsa County Juvenile Justice Center and successfully escaped, evading capture and going on the run.
