Janice Sly said she will never get over the violent death of her son Isaac Kelly, a 33-year-old nursing assistant.
"I try not to show it in front of my other kids but at night I have to let it out," Sly said.
On Oct. 3, 2015, Sheriffs investigators say Kelly was heading to his mailbox at the Meadowview Apartments in Perris when he encountered security guard Steven Dillick who was patrolling the complex.
Dillick saw a dark figure and tried to contact that person but instead the person ran towards him with an arm behind his back, according to an arrest warrant obtained by NBC4.
Fearing for his life, Dillick told investigators he opened fire because he thought the man had a gun.
The coroner's report shows that one bullet went through Kelly's arm and traveled into his chest. Five others struck him in the back.
Kelly was unarmed and holding a set of keys in his hand.
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One by one, Kelly's family members begged the judge to send the case to trial, where if convicted by a jury, Dillick could have received up to 21 years in prison.
Instead, the judge accepted a plea deal and Dillick was sentenced to one year in county jail.
During court, the prosecutor said as a security guard Dillick had received death threats from others prior to the shooting and he was afraid that someone was out to get him.
Sly said if her son had been white it would have been a different outcome.
"I loved him to the bottom of my heart, he was my backbone," she said.
