An Ohio teen who fatally shot her allegedly abusive father and was called a “hero” by her mother is back home after serving eight months in custody.
According to PEOPLE, Bresha Meadows, 16, was released from custody on Sunday, Feb. 4, after spending eight months in a juvenile detention center and mental health facilities.
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Bresha made national headlines after she fatally shot her father, 41-year-old Jonathan Meadows, in the head with his own gun on July 28, 2016 at their home in Trumball County, Ohio. She was only 14 at the time of the murder.
Following the murder, Bresha’s mother came forward to call her daughter a hero, claiming that her daughter had stopped the years of verbal and emotional abuse Bresha and her siblings had endured, as well as the physical abuse she had endured at the hands of Meadows.
“She is my hero; I wasn’t strong enough to get out and she helped me. I am so sorry she had to go through this. She is my hero,” Brandi Meadows told Fox 8 Cleveland. “She helped me; she helped all of us so we could have a better life.”
Bresha’s attorney, Ian Friedman, had said that she had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression just a month before the murder. He claimed that the mental illnesses had been a direct result of her father’s alleged abuse.
Bresha was charged with one count of murder and at one point faced the possibility of being tried as an adult, which would have carried a maximum possible sentence of life in prison. In May, she agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to a year and one day in juvenile detention, six months in a private mental facility, and two years’ probation. Her record will be sealed and expunged when she reaches adulthood.
