Age 13 Boy Sentenced to Life for Shooting Woman in Face, Calls Her from Prison To Ask for Forgiveness
Debbie Baigrie was a mom of two young kids, just living a normal life.
One day, as she was getting to her car, she was approached by a group of young men.
“You got any change? I’m serious, give it up,” they said threateningly.
When she realized they were attempting to rob her, she screamed. Immediately, a gun was fired and she watched as her own tooth skittered across the pavement.
Baigrie later found out her attacker was barely a teenager. She was shocked — that couldn’t be right. It couldn’t have been a young boy who shot her.
But it had been. Ian Manuel, a 13-year-old with a reputation for being tough had approached her with two other friends. He was the one who fired the shot that hit her face.
“My front tooth was gone. All the teeth on the bottom left side, all of them were gone,” Baigrie said.
The judge wanted to make sure that Manuel became an example, sentencing him to adult prison. He was sentenced to life without parole.
In most cases, that would have been the end of it. The victim would have gone on to rebuild her life while the criminal faded away in prison.
But Manuel wanted to do something. It took him two years to decide that he need to tell Baigrie he was sorry, and he finally made the call around Christmas.
His message was simple. He told Baigrie who was calling, he apologized for his horrible actions, and he wished her and her family a Merry Christmas.
That bloomed into an ongoing written correspondence, and as the years passed, Baigrie was impressed with Manuel’s writing and change of heart and began advocating for him.
After a lot of work, it was ruled that Manuel’s sentence had been unconstitutional, and after he expressed his sorrow and Baigrie vouched for the new man he’d become, he was released.
According to WFLA, Baigrie met him for his first meal outside of prison and said the meeting was magical.
“It was like this reunion with a long-lost son,” she said. “I got out of the car, and we just hugged for two minutes. It was very like 26 years in the making.”
Of course, now nearly 40 years old, Manuel had a lot of learning to do. He didn’t know how to do things most people his age would know because he had spent all those formative years in prison.
So who helped him and is continuing to light the way? Baigrie. She’s been one of his biggest supporters, and a beautiful example of grace and forgiveness.
“I see Ian for who he is,” she said. “He still has a lot of growing to do and I don’t glorify him but our relationship, it’s spanned so many years, from childhood to adulthood, that he’s almost like my child.”
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