Ever since her son was shot and killed in Baltimore, Yanet Ricardo Vega has struggled to explain what happened to his 4-year-old brother.

At first, Ricardo Vega said, she told him that his older brother was “far away.” She stated that his phone was broken.

When the boy one day did not think anyone was looking, he picked up a toy phone. “I’m going to call Alberto,” she recalled the child saying. “Alberto. Why aren’t you picking up? Alberto.”

On Nov. 26, 2023, Ricardo Vega’s older son, Carlos Alberto Carrazana Ricardo, and his friend, Erik Sanchez, drove from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Mosher in West Baltimore to look at a 2006 Acura TL being advertised for sale on Facebook Marketplace. They decided not to buy the car.

As Carrazana Ricardo drove away, gunshots erupted from behind him. He was shot in the head.

Medics took Carrazana Ricardo to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he later died.

Baltimore Police arrested Marques Harris in the deadly shooting. He was found guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and related crimes.

“I would like to ask him, ‘Why?’” Ricardo Vega said on Monday in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse. “Why? Why? I want to know why. My son was a kid.”

Describing the killing as a “tragedy of major proportions,” Circuit Judge Levi S. Zaslow ordered Harris to serve life in prison, plus 10 years.

Harris, 19, of Mount Winans, sobbed throughout the hearing and kept his head down. He declined to address the court at sentencing.

Carrazana Ricardo was born in Cuba and loved football and cars, according to his obituary. He was a senior at McCaskey High School.

Assistant State’s Attorney Victoria Yeager highlighted what she called the senseless nature of the killing and pushed for a sentence of life in prison — plus 50 years.

“This wasn’t a drug deal gone bad,” Yeager said. “These were two completely innocent victims.”

But Assistant Public Defender Judit Otvos, Harris’ attorney, brought up the scientific research into adolescent brain development and noted that her client was not thinking the same as someone who’s 30, 40 or 50 years old.

Harris, she said, also experienced trauma in his childhood.

“This is a horrific incident with devastating consequences,” Otvos said.

Otvos requested a sentence of life in prison with all but 30 years suspended.

Carrazana Ricardo and Harris were both 18 at the time of the shooting.

Now, one is dead. And the other is headed to prison.