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A 19-year-old man avoided the death penalty after posting threats online against a man who he eventually killed.

18-year-old Prentice Dietrich-Smith lost his life in June after Christopher Dowen, 19, wrote that he was going to “keep beating your ass over and over again” on Facebook.

Dowen was found not guilty of murder and felonious assault Wednesday. Dietrich-Smith died after Rowen stabbed him at his Ohio home. 

From News Herald:

The victim was the former boyfriend of Dowen’s fiancee. A jury instead found 19-year-old Christopher Dowen guilty of reckless homicide and tampering with evidence in the June 30 death of 18-year-old Prentice Dietrich-Smith.

Dowen now faces up to six years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 17 by Judge Maureen E. Clancy.

Read more at News Herald

“I’m not happy,” the victim’s mother, Miranda Dietrich, told the News Herald through her tears. “I feel like I felt since day one. If Chris had not come to where we were, this would not have happened. I’m not a vindictive person. I do realize teenagers make rash decisions. But I definitely wanted him to get the murder charge because he posted his intentions (on Facebook), and he carried them out. And now he only faces six years? At the most?”

Dowen told police he stabbed Dietrich-Smith once in the abdomen in self-defense. He says we was being punched and kicked by five people at once.

He remains in jail until his sentencing.

Thoughts on the incident?

Has the justice system failed once again?

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