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First, Karsen Rezac, 24, turned to face Kupo Mleya's family and loved ones and offered an apology.

"My actions led them to have to say goodbye to such a kind soul, a father and a son, way too soon," Rezac said of Mleya, who lived a block away from him though the two never had met. "This is nothing less than a tragedy, one that I take full responsibility for."

He said he wished he could take back what happened. 

"This horrendous act that I've committed, I would have never thought I would be capable of," Rezac said.

Prosecutors said at 12:20 a.m. Dec. 23, 2022, Lincoln police were called to South 20th and Washington streets on reports of the sound of a crash, then several gunshots.

Officers found Mleya, still in the driver’s seat, with gunshot wounds to his head, his Jeep Patriot riddled with bullet holes and the driver’s window shattered.

The 38-year-old Lincoln man died at the scene.

Police quickly tied the crime to Rezac, who had driven away, leaving his SUV parked nearby with damage to its passenger side and a window consistent with debris left at the scene and gunshots.

A search turned up nine spent casings and a 9mm Glock handgun in the center console.

When investigators interviewed Rezac the next day, he told police he was backing out of his driveway when the Jeep "slammed" into him and he "freaked out" and grabbed the 9mm handgun in the center console.

Last month, Rezac pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for it as part of a plea agreement.

In court Wednesday, Rezac said he has come to realize that his demons need to be addressed, instead he suppressed them with substance abuse. He said he plans to work to improve himself during his prison term.

Lancaster County Attorney Patrick Condon said Mleya's family literally had come from across the world to attend the sentencing: from South Africa and Zimbabwe to Japan and Texas.

He said what they all wanted was for Kupo to be there.

"You can't do that. So I'd ask that you punish Mr. Rezac with a lengthy sentence. Hopefully this will provide some closure for Kupo Mleya's family and friends," Condon said.

Aside from keeping the community safe, he said, it also will let others know the "serious consequences they face when they engage in his kind of conduct."

Then, Lancaster County District Judge Lori Maret said she was provided a lot of information that might have given an explanation how they had arrived at that fateful evening.

"But still not a why," she said.

Maret said Rezac had depression and anxiety and suffered personal losses, but he had the resources to deal with his mental health problems. When he was 17, he had another case involving substances and firearms, which was transferred to juvenile court.

"At that point, I wondered why exactly did you feel that you needed to obtain another firearm just a couple months prior to this incident," the judge said. "Throughout all of the information that I received, there's no information about 'the why' for that question."

She said Rezac had settled into a victimhood seen in this culture among people his age. Though he had access to resources and medication, he still used marijuana, cocaine and mushrooms, which only made his bad situation worse.

"Nobody wins here today," Maret said. "The safest place for the community is with you not in it."

And she announced Rezac's sentence, with the sounds of muffled crying and quiet sighs throughout the courtroom. 

Outside the courtroom, family and friends hugged and shared tears. Some wore T-shirts commemorating Mleya, whose memorial drew hundreds.

Mleya, a native of Zimbabwe, emigrated to the U.S. to attend school. He had a daughter and had worked at the Lincoln bike shop Cycle Works, at Frontier Harley-Davidson and as a groundskeeper at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was a student in the late 2010s.