GUILTY UT - Jamie Blalack, 29, shot to death, Salt Lake City, 2 Nov 2014

At approximately 1:20 a.m., a man walked into a 7-Eleven, 1157 W. California Avenue. After an argument, the suspect shot and killed 29-year-old Jamie Blalack then fled the scene, according to a press release from Salt Lake City police.

Police arrested 30-year-old Anthony William Cline Sunday afternoon. A statement of probable cause states that Cline, “admitted to firing his gun at the front of the 7-11 from outside the store. Cline stated he was mad at the clerk for refusing to sell him cigarettes.”

Click to expand...

Anthony William Cline, 31, was originally charged with murder in the Nov. 2, 2014, shooting death of 29-year-old Jamie Blalack as he worked at the Salt Lake City convenience store.

Cline was scheduled to face a jury this week in Blalack's death. Instead, Cline called last month for a change of plea hearing and admitted May 16 to manslaughter, a second-degree felony, and felony discharge of a firearm, a first-degree felony.

In the plea agreement, Cline said he "fired a gun in the direction of Jamie Blalack, knowing he would be endangered." As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend concurrent sentences for the two charges. The first-degree felony firearm charge carries a potential sentence of up to life in prison.

Click to expand...

Cline was sentenced Tuesday to concurrent sentences of five years to life in prison for the weapon charge and two to 20 years in prison for the manslaughter charge.

Though he elected not to run Cline's sentences consecutively, Parker emphasized that his decision to fire at Blalack in an argument, whatever his intention may have been, was "unforgivable." The judge urged Cline to use his time in prison to continue improving himself.

Click to expand...

Members of Blalack's family, including some who were just getting to know him before he was killed, asked 3rd District Judge Paul Parker for the maximum allowable prison sentence for Cline.

Bailey James, Blalack's niece, had come with her young son to visit her uncle nine months earlier.

"I feel like my family has been robbed of a relationship that could have been something great," James said Tuesday. "I barely got to know him. … It's not fair and I don't feel that Mr. Cline should get any leniency."

Debra James, Blalack's older sister and Bailey's mother, explained that her 14-year-old son never got a chance to meet his uncle. She showed the judge a photo of the boy leaning over Blalack's body in a casket.

"It shouldn't be like that, no child should have to meet their uncle for the first time (at his funeral) because someone is negligent and drinking," she said.

Click to expand...