The man convicted of shooting another person in Albany last year was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison.

Kerdel Young, 39, was sentenced Monday morning to 16 years to life in prison. That’s lower than the maximum 25 years to life.

Young was found guilty back in May of murdering Anthony Dias, of Watervliet, near 91 Quail St. in Albany. It was Albany’s first homicide of 2023.

“This monster did not just take the life of a son, he took a father, a brother, and a friend from us,” said Grettell Franklin, Dias’ mother, in a statement. “Our life has not been the same since Kerdel Young took him away from his four kids, two of whom will never know him.”

“The defendant’s actions were nothing short of an execution of Anthony Dias in broad daylight, in the middle of the city,” Assistant District Attorney Stephen Lydon said.

Defense attorney Jasper Mills said his client was defending himself. Young had been threatened and repeatedly gone to police.

“My client  was trying to get away from this person on a number of occasions, and on a number of occasions, this person tried to track him down, tried to threaten him through, directly through his family,”

Young had a gun permit. The problems apparently started when his child’s mother took up with the head of a gang.

Judge Thomas Marcelle said when Dias pulled up and started yelling that day, there may have been legitimate fear but things went too far.

“While you were entitled to defend yourself to a certain point, you weren’t entitled to finish him off,” he said.

Prosecutors had asked for 25 years to life in prison, but Marcelle handed down a lower sentence.