The Ohio Supreme Court Tuesday has remanded the case of Kyle Patrick of Youngstown, convicted of aggravated murder and robbery in a 2012 fatal shooting, back to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for resentencing. The reason: “the record…does not demonstrate the trial court considered Patrick’s youth as a mitigating factor.”

Patrick was 17 years old when he shot and killed Michael Abighanem at a home on Silliman Street where the victim had gone to sell a video game console and laptop. Patrick was convicted in 2017 — the second time he was found guilty after a 2014 conviction and a subsequent 16-years to life prison sentence was overturned. The Seventh District Court of Appeals ruled that the presiding judge in the case should not have had refused to allow Patrick to withdraw a guilty plea. The same appellate court upheld the second conviction — a ruling that the Ohio Supreme Court reversed with Tuesday’s ruling.

 Patrick is currently serving a life prison sentence with parole eligibility after 33 years.

The justices wrote that the lower court had to “separately consider the youth of a juvenile offender as a mitigating factor before imposing a life sentence… even if that sentence includes eligibility for parole.”  Patrick’s attorney, John Juhasz, had argued that there was nothing in the lower court’s record to indicate that was the case, which made it a constitutional issue, one that the higher court accepted. 21 News was unable to reach Juhasz for comment.

Tuesday’s ruling requires a resentencing of Patrick, but does not overturn his conviction. Reginald Whitfield, a convicted accomplice, is currently serving a 13-year prison term for involuntary manslaughter and robbery.