A guilty plea did nothing for a Vicksburg man who will serve the maximum sentence for the 2003 shooting death of a neighbor at Forest Hill Apartments.

Terence Dontae Truitt, 22, 223 Demby Drive, received a 20-year sentence for manslaughter from Judge Isadore Patrick in Warren County Circuit Court Thursday.

Truitt was arrested in October 2003 after Darrell Dwayne Kemper, who lived next door to Truitt at the apartment complex at 320 Fisher Ferry Road, was killed.

Truitt was indicted in May 2004 and entered a guilty plea to the manslaughter charge in February.

At the time of the shooting, investigators said Truitt went into Apartment 233, fired two shots and left, then returned and fired two more shots. Three children from 18 months to 9 years old were in the apartment when the shooting happened.

Investigators believe Truitt shot Kemper because Truitt believed Kemper stole something from him.

After the shooting, Truitt fled the city and went to Texas. He returned in November 2003 and was arrested at the Jackson International Airport by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department awaiting his return.

Patrick, after accepting the plea, ordered a presentencing investigation. At Thursday’s sentencing, Patrick told Truitt that his account of the shooting did not correspond with statements from others, imposed the 20-year maximum and ordered Truitt taken into custody immediately.

Under the state’s 85 percent rule for violent offenders, Truitt will not be eligible for consideration of release until 2022.