Kepler sentenced to 15 years in shooting death

A white former police officer who was convicted of fatally shooting his daughter’s black boyfriend in Oklahoma heard directly from the victim’s father, who told him he’ll have to “pay the consequences.”

Carl Morse, the father of 19-year-old Jeremey Lake, spoke Monday during Shannon Kepler’s sentencing hearing.

Morse said he woke up Monday wanting to “to rip the head off” of Kepler, but later said it would do him no good to carry that hate and that it wouldn’t bring back his son.

Kepler was convicted last month of first-degree manslaughter in the 2014 shooting after juries deadlocked in three earlier trials.

Tulsa District Judge Sharon Holmes sentenced Kepler on Monday in the 2014 killing of Lake.

Kepler, who retired from the force after he was charged, told investigators that Lake was armed and that he shot him in self-defense. Police never found a weapon on Lake or at the scene.