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Criminal Punishment

'He needs healing': Shooting victim's mom backs accused shooter in court

Portrait of Ed Palattella Ed Palattella
Erie Times-News

ERIE, Pa. − An Erie teen charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend had the victim's mother on his side as his case reached a pivotal moment in a Pennsylvania courtroom.

The mother wants the defendant, Riley R. Shearer, now 18, to avoid prosecution as an adult in the death of her daughter, Audrey Maria Kellogg. She was 14 when she was killed in an Erie apartment in October 2022, when Shearer was 16.