By Associated Press - Tuesday, January 16, 2018

NEW YORK (AP) - A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 41 years in prison for the 2016 shooting death of a teenage girl while she was babysitting.

Taariq Stephens got the maximum prison sentence Tuesday after being found guilty of manslaughter.

Prosecutors say he shot Shemel Mercurius in May 2016 with a submachine rifle, inside an apartment where she was babysitting her cousin after she rejected his advances.

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She was taken to a hospital where she died from multiple gunshot wound.

Court documents say she identified her killer as she lay dying.

Stephens claimed he was innocent.

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