BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It started last September as a scuffle outside a Delhi Township billiards hall: A 17-year-old boy lost his temper and punched another 17-year-old boy.
Although the scenario sounds similar to the start of many school-yard scraps, this fight outside the Wizards 8 Club turned out to be anything but.
The next day, Gilbert Manning was dead, and Jason Patterson was hurled into the adult court system, facing involuntary manslaughter charges.
It ended Wednesday with Mr. Patterson getting three years in prison.
It was the furthest thing from his mind that night.
"I didn't mean for it to happen," a tearful Mr. Patterson told Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert S. Kraft Wednesday before he was sentenced for involuntary manslaughter. "I'm really sorry it did."
In July, Mr. Patterson pleaded guilty to the involuntary manslaughter charges. If it had gone to trial, he could have faced as many as 10 years in prison.
Wednesday Mr. Patterson, now 18, wiped away tears as Judge Kraft sentenced him to three years in prison and two years probation. "The greatest wish I have is that we didn't have to be here," Judge Kraft said. "Obviously, Mr. Patterson, what you have done here is something you're going to have to live with for the rest of your life."
From the judge to the two boys' parents, a few words kept being repeated: It's a sad situation.
"He didn't realize starting the fight would initiate involuntary manslaughter charges," said Dale G. Schmidt, Mr. Patterson's attorney. "He has great remorse for this."
"It's a very tragic situation," a choked-up Clyde Patterson, Mr. Patterson's father, told the judge. "One can only attempt to imagine how (the Manning family) feels . . . I'm very sorry. . . . I have children of my own though. And when the thought flashes through my mind that under different circumstances I could be sitting there, I can't function."
Mr. Manning's father, Gilbert Manning Sr., told Judge Kraft his family accepted the plea to avoid a trial that could drag on. "Our son will never come home again," he said. "The only thing we have is memories."
