JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Logan Mott, the Neptune Beach teenager who pleaded guilty to killing his grandma Kristina French nearly two years ago, was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for the killing of his grandmother.
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On Thursday, Judge Bruce Anderson said even though Mott killed his grandmother, he hopes the teen can one day be a successful member of the community.
In September, Mott pleaded guilty to shooting and stabbing his grandma in 2017. Anderson imposed the minimum 15-year sentence, saying evidence proves Mott didn’t plan to kill French.
He claims the killing was actually the immature reaction of an adolescent attempting to run away from a hopeless home life, where he was traumatized by his parents’ divorce and his father’s psychological abuse.
During his sentencing hearings -- which took place throughout October and November -- people closest to Logan described his as a depressed teen stuck between divorced parents who didn’t agree on many aspects of raising him.
Action News Jax learned from investigators in the courtroom that Logan, who was 15 at the time of the murder, was part of a communist chat group online.
Investigators believe he wanted to run away, eventually ending up in Russia, and his grandmother got in the way of it, so that's why he killed her.
Logan’s father said he had no idea about the online chat group, but knows his mother, Kristina, loved Logan very much.
“His grandmother was one of the best things in his life,” Mott’s attorney, Public Defender Charlie Cofer said Thursday. “She was protective. She understood the dynamics of the family relationship and she was one of the stabilizing things.”
WATCH: Logan Mott apologizes in court in November for killing his grandmother
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