WASHINGTON (DC News Now) -- A former DC Parks and Recreation (DPS) employee was sentenced Friday to over 12 years in prison after fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy just over two years ago. A jury in August 2024 found Jason Lewis not guilty of second-degree murder after he shot and killed 13-year-old Karon Blake. The jury did, however, convict him on other counts, including manslaughter and assault with a dangerous weapon. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Jury convicts DC government employee manslaughter in deadly shooting of 13-year-old Lewis said he heard sounds outside of his home in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2023, on Quincy Street NE. He believed a gunshot was fired from a car in an alley and fired toward the area. Blake then ran toward him and Lewis fired a second and third time, shooting and killing the teenager. At the time of his conviction, a juror said self-defense was why they did not find Lewis guilty of murder, but that he was still responsible for Blake's death. Several of Blake's family members spoke before Lewis's sentencing on Friday, Jan. 10. One aunt called him a coward. His grandmother said to Lewis, "You broke our family with your actions." Prosecutors claimed Lewis tried to kill one of the kids as revenge for breaking into his car, while the defense brought up how he performed CPR and was not revengeful, but mortified over what happened. Lewis apologized to Blake's family, saying the young man "deserved to live a full life and because of my actions that is not possible." PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Karon Blake’s mother talks after man charged with 13-year-old’s murder "There's not a day or night that goes by I don't think about my actions," he said. He also apologized to his own family and the youth of the city, with whom he worked while a DPS employee. "I have destroyed the trust I've built with the young people of this city," he said. Prosecutors had asked Judge Anthony Epstein to sentence him to 25 years, but Lewis was sentenced to half. The judge said he believes Lewis saw people breaking into cars from his bedroom, given how as soon as he stepped out of the house, he fired toward the car in the alley. "He didn't have to pull the trigger the second and the third time when he saw a figure running out of the dark," Epstein said. He said under D.C. Law, people can't use deadly force to prevent property crime and that the kids did not pose an imminent danger. Lewis, he said, could have stayed in his house. Epstein added that there was no evidence that Lewis knew the age or race of the figures in the darkness and that he didn't know they were children. He noted that before the shooting, Lewis led an exemplary life and was a devoted father. He called him a "good man who committed a terrible crime." Lewis was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. Over seven of those years relate to his manslaughter conviction, while five are for both assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. He will also undergo five years of supervised release once he has served his time. Epstein said Lewis doesn't need rehabilitative services and believes he has learned his lesson. He said his lengthy sentence is to deter others so they know they cannot take the law into their own hands.