JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville teen learned he will spend the next 23 years behind bars Thursday in a sentencing hearing more than six months after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of a 9-year-old girl in 2023. 

16-year-old Kayden Tuten pleaded guilty to attempted murder and shooting a deadly missile in October 2024, after he was arrested in the shooting of the 9-year-old in July 2023. 

Thursday, Tuten was sentenced to 25 years in prison on the attempted murder charge, and 15 years on the charge of shooting a deadly missile. Both charges will run concurrently, and he received credit for more than 660 days of time served, meaning his effective sentence is more than 23 years.

Once he’s eligible to be released from prison in 2048, he will have two years of community control with a GPS monitor and three more years of probation.

Tuten initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but changed his plea at his final pretrial hearing on Oct. 24, 2024, according to court records. He could have faced life in prison for the attempted murder charge if found guilty at trial.

The 9-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital on July 20, 2023, after being shot in the throat at a home in the Mid-Westside area of Jacksonville, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters says on July 20, ‘shot spotter’ alerted officers to a home in the 1500 block of West 19th Street at 9:19 p.m. in reference to gunshots fired. Upon arrival, officers found the unidentified girl seriously injured. According to one arrest report, four rounds were fired from the sidewalk in front of the home by the teens, which penetrated through the front door. The two teens fled on foot after firing the rounds at the home, an arrest report indicates.

An arrest report also states that three 9 mm shell casings and a pistol-mounted flashlight were found at the scene of the shooting.

Police took the girl to a local hospital, where she was in critical condition but stable. She was one of seven people in the home when the shooting happened, and Waters says she was not the targeted victim in the shooting. No other injuries were reported in the shooting.

In August 2023, Waters announced police arrested then-14-year-old Kayden Tuten and then-15-year-old Nakendall Jackson. Both were charged as adults.

Jackson faces the same attempted murder charge and shooting a deadly missile charge that Tuten pleaded guilty to. Jackson has maintained a not-guilty plea. 

His next court date is scheduled for June 2, 2025.