A man who admitted killing his stepfather as a teenager made his case Friday for probation before the judge in his case.

A decision is pending on the punishment for Tanner Perruquet, 21, who pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in the death of Homer Boling, 36, who was shot May 5, 2018, at the Brandywood Court home where Perruquet lived at the time with his mother.

Perruquet, who was 17 when the shooting occurred, was charged initially with murder and tampering with physical evidence and prosecuted as an adult in Warren Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty this month to a reduced charge of second-degree manslaughter, accepting a plea agreement that recommended a 10-year prison sentence.

Perruquet’s attorney, Alan Simpson, filed a motion for probation ahead of a Friday sentencing hearing, arguing that Perruquet acted in what he believed was defense of his mother, who had come to his workplace earlier in the night to report that Boling had physically abused her.

In court Friday, Perruquet struggled to compose himself for a few moments before addressing Warren Circuit Judge Steve Wilson.

“When everything happened, I was irrational,” Perruquet said. “I wish I could go back and change how I acted. When I got the gun, I don’t know if I was trying to be a hero or what … all I did was hurt everybody else more.”

After Perruquet learned from his mother that she had been abused moments earlier, Perruquet obtained a gun from a friend and made emotionally charged posts on social media, court records said. Perruquet and his friend then went to his mother’s house and encountered Boling, who reportedly began throwing handfuls of change at Perruquet, which then led to the shooting.

“From the day this case started and I saw what happened, I understood what Tanner’s reaction was given his age and circumstance,” Simpson said in court. “It says a lot that he was so afraid of what he thought was happening, he did what he did. No one loves a woman like a son loves a mother.”

Perruquet’s mother, Andrea Boling, took responsibility for what happened when she addressed the court Friday, saying that Homer Boling was abusive to her for much of their relationship.

“Tanner was living right in the middle of this nightmare and for whatever reason I didn’t see the warning signs,” Andrea Boling said. “He was in no way mature enough to deal with what was happening. … I should have been the adult and handled the situation in a proper way.”

Perruquet was released on bond less than two months after the shooting and directed to live with a grandparent in Illinois.

His bond was revoked in March and he was placed in the Warren County Regional Jail after he was cited for a traffic crash in Bowling Green in which he was found to be in possession of marijuana.

Altogether, Perruquet has earned 302 days of jail credit toward his sentence.

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron said this was a difficult case, and that Perruquet’s home life, marked by an absent father and a mother involved in abusive relationships, contributed to difficult circumstances.

Nonetheless, Cohron argued that probation would lessen the serious nature of the criminal charges.

“This was a difficult case, there’s no doubt about it … the difference is we don’t have vigilante justice,” Cohron said. “No matter how much we may understand it or empathize with it, we don’t do it. The emotions of this young man were triggered by his mother’s actions.”

The offer to reduce the murder count to second-degree manslaughter and dismiss the tampering count came after Cohron discussed it with the Boling family, Cohron said.

Toward the end of the hearing, Wilson said he would take the request for probation under advisement and deliver a ruling on a future date.

If Perruquet were to be sentenced to 10 years, he would be eligible for consideration for parole after serving two years.

Speaking to Perruquet, Wilson said he considered Perruquet’s mother to be a victim who could not leave her situation and urged Perruquet not to lose hope at making a future for himself.

“Right now, you’re thinking your life is over, but it’s not, not by a long shot,” Wilson said. “You can let this define you, or you can grow from it. You’ll still be a young man when you get out of jail.”