TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A judge has ruled that a 17-year-old can be tried as an adult in a Topeka killing.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the decision to move the case against Christopher Shawn Pattillo to adult court was made Thursday in Shawnee County. Patillo was 16 in April when Brian Miller was fatally shot. Pattillo initially was charged in juvenile court with first-degree murder.

Prosecutors allege Pattillo drove a van from which a gunman fired shots at two people. A second suspect also is jailed in the killing.

Patillo’s mother, Kimberly Hendrix, testified that her son has had a “hard life.” The teen’s father, also named Christopher Shawn Pattillo, is serving a sentence of 22 years and eight months in prison in the 2003 shooting death of a 36-year-old man.