A judge has ordered a man to spend several decades behind bars for killing a pregnant woman while she was in a car with three small children and her boyfriend near the State Capitol.

Judge Maria Mitchell sentenced 24-year-old Paul Dwayne Harris to 38½ years (463 months) in prison on Thursday morning for the murder of 21-year-old Gabriella Dehoyos earlier this year.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Dehoyos was shot shortly before 5 p.m. on March 13 at the intersection of St. Anthony Avenue and Marion Street, less than a mile from the State Capitol.

Court documents state that Dehoyos’ boyfriend showed up with her at the hospital, saying she’d been shot in the head. He later told investigators he was stopped at the intersection when a silver Ford sedan pulled up behind him and a man pointed a gun at them and shot, shattering a rear window. Dehoyos died; her three young children, who were also in the vehicle at the time, weren’t physically hurt.

Harris pleaded guilty to second-degree murder back in September as part of a plea deal, which called for the assault and gun possession charges against him to be dropped.

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In sentencing Harris, Mitchell noted that he had accepted some responsibility by pleading guilty, and that’s why she didn’t opt for a maximum 40-year sentence. However, because of the presence of the children in the car when Dehoyos was shot, Mitchell sentenced Harris to the top end of what the sentencing guidelines called for.

Tensions flared as the hearing ended, as Harris gestured to people sitting inside the courtroom just before he was escorted out, and several people then got into a shouting match as the judge ordered them to be quiet.