A Utah girl who was shot by a teenage boy and left to die in a ditch confronted her attacker in court.
The 14-year-old, who still has a bullet in her brain, confronted Colter Peterson, 17, in Logan.
“You shouldn’t have messed with me, because I am tougher than a bullet,” Deserae Turner said Thursday, Feb. 1, at a hearing where Peterson was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.
Turner said Peterson was her friend before the shooting.
The teenager used to enjoy riding horses, practicing karate, and playing the saxophone before the shooting.
“There are times I wish I could give the gun back to Colter and tell him to try again and put me out of my misery,” Turner told the court.
“Welcome to hell. I have been here for a year now,” she told Peterson. “You wanted to kill. I was an easy target and took the bullet. You should never be allowed out of prison.”
“I hate you,” she said, reported the Salt Lake Tribune. “I hate what you did to me. I hate that I trusted you. … Your life will be confined to a small room, and my life will also be confined.”
When Peterson and a friend left Turner for dead, they robbed her of a backpack, cellphone, and iPod, along with cash from her purse.“He is a good boy and any parent would be happy to have him as a son,” Colter Peterson’s mother said. “Colter is not an evil person and does have many good qualities about him. He is a good boy and any parent would be happy to have him as a son.”
She added that she’s praying for the victim and apologized for her son.
Near the end, Peterson himself spoke, asking for forgiveness.
“I’m sincerely sorry, which probably doesn’t mean much.” Peterson said facing the judge. “I want to apologize to my family... and the community. I want to pay for what I have done... maybe one day I can be forgiven.”
