Fortuna resident Erik Keith Wood was handcuffed in court today and led off to jail, where he will spend a year for shooting a 14-year-old boy who was among a group of teens harassing Wood’s family.

Judge Kaleb Cockrum suspended a three-year prison sentence and placed Wood on two years probation, with 365 days in Humboldt County Correctional Facility. Wood, 42, pleaded guilty earlier to one felony count of assault with a firearm.

Wood,

The now 15-year-old victim and his father were in court for the sentencing.

A group of juveniles had been harassing Wood and his family for months, they say, and on May 24 he fired at the kids after they banged on his doors and windows, screaming obscenities when they were told to get off the property.

The juvenile victim stated in a letter read to the judge that he was not part of the group. He was just riding his bicycle in the neighborhood and rode down to investigate the commotion.

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the letter said.

He said the shooting has left him with physical and emotional scars.

A family friend, Susan Nessen, said she became a surrogate grandmother to the victim and his brother after their mother died when they were just 7 and 8 years old. Nessen said the victim has injuries “all the way up his leg, and on one side all the way up to his shoulder.”

“That leg is noticeably smaller than the other leg,” she said.

Wood was accompanied this morning by a large group of supporters, including his 17-year-old son, Chris Wood. During a court break Wood hugged and comforted Chris, who was sobbing.

Chris Wood was home when the shooting occurred. He told Cockrum today there was a knock on the door, then nobody there. Another knock. When he looked out “I see a bunch of them.”

He said he also saw a rock and a knife. And then “I hear a humongous sound.”

Kari Jones, Woods’s fiancee, told the judge she ordered the kids outside to get off the property.

“”They started yelling obscenities to me,” she recalled. She described Wood as a wonderful father and a hard worker who has never been in trouble.

“Now he will be a felon.”

Wood also spoke, saying “We had a lot of problems with those kids for quite awhile. I asked for help from the school, from the police.”

When he looked at the crowd of juveniles, Wood said, “I did see a knife.”

“I wish every day of my life that I could take (the shooting) back,” he said. “… I was just frustrated because nobody would help us.”

But Deputy District Attorney Luke Bernthal was very skeptical of Woods’s account of the incident and what led up to it.

Records show Wood called the police about the problem one time, Bernthal said. He asked Cockrum to sentence Wood to the mid-term of three years, and to deny probation.

“The defendant fired a shotgun at a group of juveniles,” he said. He called the person who was shot a particularly vulnerable victim.

“He was a teenage boy. He had no way to defend himself against a shotgun … he was simply there hanging around with a group of friends.”

The prosecutor said Wood never mentioned seeing a knife until after he was arrested.

Cockrum said he was taking into account Woods’s lack of criminal history, and he also didn’t doubt that Wood and his family felt threatened and fearful.

Nevertheless, “he shot a juvenile on a bicycle.”

Cockrum said he has no way of knowing whether the victim was part of the group.

After Wood was taken off to jail and most spectators left the courtroom, the judge spoke to the juvenile.

“Young man, I want to talk to you. I want you to come up here. I want to talk to you a little bit.”

He approached the bench, and he and Cockrum had a brief conversation. It appeared the judge was giving him some advice and encouragement.

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