LOCKPORT — With a weather-delayed jury selection about to begin on Tuesday morning, a 19-year-old Lockport teen pleaded guilty to a fatal 2023 shooting on Spalding Street in the city.
Details of the plea were not immediately available, but the unidentified teen had been facing a count of second-degree murder. Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman declined to comment on the plea pending the teen’s sentencing.
It’s believed he will face a sentence of between 16 and 20 years behind bars from Niagara County Court Judge Caroline Wojtaszek.
The case had been scheduled for a trial, and the start of jury selection for that trial had been set for Monday. A massive winter storm closed courts across the state yesterday.
Lockport police arrested the teen on Nov. 30, 2023, in connection with the Nov. 21 fatal shooting of a Spalding Street resident. The accused killer was 17 at the time. He has been held since his arrest at a “secure juvenile lockup.”
The teen’s name has been kept confidential under New York’s Raise the Age law.
He is accused of shooting and killing 26-year-old Michael Hathaway at his residence, 166 Spalding St., at about 10:50 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2023. Lockport Police detectives described the shooting as “targeted” and “not random.”
Investigators have offered no additional information about what triggered the shooting. Police said Hathaway was a registered level-three sex offender, but also said that they did not believe his prior criminal record had anything to do with his shooting.