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Teen sentenced in 2015 double homicide

Posted at 4:59 PM, Aug 29, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-29 19:20:21-04

An Omaha boy, who was just 15-years-old at the time, is punished for killing two other teens in 2015.

 

 

 

Courvoisier Sims, 17, is sentenced to 70-120 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of 2nd degree murder in the deaths of James Star and Brandon Phelps by Douglas County District Court Judge James Gleason.  Sims went to buy a handgun from Star outside the Ernie Chambers Court Apartments near 16th and Yates St. in December 2015.  When Sims realized he was possibly being robbed he pulled out a gun and shot both teens.

 

“They knew each other that’s why I thought his family or someone would reach out to me and just explain to me why?  Why my son? He was unarmed. I knew he was there so did you do it because he was a witness? Can I get some reason why? But I never got that. I never got a sorry, I never got anything,” said Ebone Phelps, Brandon’s mother.

 

With “Goodtime” he'll serve 35 years before being eligible for parole, and has a mandatory release date in 60 years.

 

Sims’ attorneys says he panicked when he realized one of the other teens had a gun.

 

"Your honor I am sorry about everything that happened, everything that went down.  I didn't want none of that to happen when it happened,” Sims told the judge.

 

Two accessories in this case, Warren and Martin Anderson, still have cases pending.