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Alex Ross, 16, survived a gunshot to the head after doctors gave him three hours to live, and his friend, Kenneth Ray Stephens, 16 at the time, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the Jan. 6 shooting inside a home on Jacksonville's Westside.

Ross was shot in the 5100 block of Clarendon Road, according to the Florida Times-Union. Three other teenagers were in the house and no adults were present. Police reports released in July said the two teenagers who were not involved did not see the shooting. Both heard the gunshot, and one told investigators he heard Kenneth Ray Stephens call out Ross' name and begin to cry. The two called 911 and held a towel against Ross' head until an ambulance arrived.

Ross later told police that he, Stephens and another teenager had taken the handgun from a parked car on Coronet Road on Dec. 31, a week before he was shot with it. The gun had no registered owner on file and had never been reported stolen. Stephens kept it, Ross said, and several teenagers handled it the next day. Officers recovered the weapon from the backyard, where they said Stephens had thrown it.

Stephens was arrested after the shooting on juvenile charges of aggravated battery and tampering with evidence. Those counts were dropped in March, when prosecutors charged him as an adult with attempted second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and possession of a firearm by a juvenile. He was ordered held on $405,000 bail. Authorities did not release a motive.

Stephens pleaded guilty on Aug. 4, less than two weeks before his trial was to begin, to a reduced charge of aggravated battery. Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud sentenced him to 15 years, including a mandatory minimum of 10 years because a gun was used, the Times-Union reported. Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges. He had faced up to 30 years if convicted at trial.

Attorneys for Stephens called the shooting an accident and said he had no animosity toward Ross. Ross' family disputed that account. "I know we got into a fight the week before this happened, but I don't understand why you did this to me," Ross told Stephens in court, according to remarks his mother posted on a blog documenting his recovery. "No friend of mine would point a loaded gun at my head and pull the trigger." Stephens' mother, Michelle Stephens, said her son was remorseful and that she still believed he had not meant to fire.

Lisa Dillard, Ross' mother, said her son uses a wheelchair, can walk only with difficulty, has no use of his left arm and has lost peripheral vision in both eyes. She said she hopes he can return to school for his senior year, depending on the results of vision testing.