BOSTON — A Hyde Park man has been sentenced to up to two decades in state prison after pleading guilty in a 2024 shooting that killed his lifelong friend, 28-year-old Jose Feliz, the district attorney said Monday.
Isaiah Smith, 29, was sentenced Friday to 18 to 20 years in state prison for manslaughter and an additional four years for a firearm offense, to be served consecutively, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. Judge Mary Ames handed down his sentence.
Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm in the fatal shooting of Feliz in 2024.
According to victim impact statements shared in court, Smith and Feliz were lifelong and close friends.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, family and friends remembered Feliz as a kind person.
“Jose was one of the most friendly, outgoing, and respectful people in the neighborhood,” Feliz’s brother said. “He never bothered anyone, he never looked for trouble, and he never would have hurt the person who took his life.”
Around 1:15 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2024, Boston Police responded to multiple 911 calls for a person shot at 201 Garfield Ave. in Hyde Park.
When officers arrived, they found Feliz unresponsive in the shared backyard at the address. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers found Smith near the front steps of his home at 201 Garfield Ave., Hayden said. Smith told officers that he had shot Feliz and that the weapon was inside the house on the kitchen counter.
A family member speaking on behalf of Feliz’s late mother on Friday said the deadly shooting stunned residents in the neighborhood.
“Smith didn’t just take a life; he changed many lives forever,” the family member said. “The neighborhood is not the same. It carries the pain of what he did. There is an emptiness and a heaviness that everyone feels.”
Hayden said the victim impact statements “make very clear how homicides impact not only the victims and their families, but entire neighborhoods.”
“The words from Jose Feliz’s family give us motivation to work ever harder to reduce violence throughout our city,” Hayden said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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