Zachariah Blanton, a troubled teenager who confessed that he murdered a New Albany man with his rifle as he was firing at a pickup truck from a Jackson County overpass, has been given a sentence of 42 years in prison yesterday.

Zacharias’ deed which took place on 23, 2006 was labeled as "an act of terrorism" by the judge. The 18-year-old shot and killed Jerry Ross, 40, and wounded an Iowa man in another vehicle along Interstate 65, Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance said. He shot the two from an overpass near Seymour, about 60 miles south of Indianapolis.

"What you did most definitely had an impact on the motoring public in Jackson County and in fact across the nation," Vance told Blanton during the sentencing hearing.

Rachel Davis, Ross' fiancée, held her plea for the maximum sentence from the witness stand and her message to Zachariah was very emotional.

"He can know that as long as he is living, he is hated. Zachariah should have done the whole world a favor and turned the gun on himself," she said.  

After the sentence was given, she said she was happy that it was 42 years and not 20, although it should have been a lot more.

The Delaware County teen faced almost 50 years in jail after pleading guilty in early December to charges of voluntary manslaughter and criminal recklessness, but Zachariah originally faced charges of murder and attempted murder that could have brought up to 65 years and 50 years, respectively, upon conviction.

Patrica Blanton, grandmother to the teen killer, said that Zachariah had a very troubled youth. He suffered several childhood surgeries and was molested by an older child.

''He's a good kid,'' she insisted. ''He's got a good heart, a gentle heart.''

Nevertheless, Judge Vance said that a troubled youth can never be an excuse for killing someone who didn’t hurt you.