Jerome Pablo Cross

Jerome Pablo Cross was sentenced to 32½ years in prison for shooting a 16-year-old on a Metro Transit bus. Cross will have to serve more than 21½ years before he is eligible for release. Security was extremely tight Friday, with at least two dozen uniformed and plainclothes officers and deputies inside and outside the courtroom. At a hearing Oct. 13 where Cross pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, a near-riot erupted in the elevator lobby outside the courtroom and the violence continued outside the courthouse with fistfights and a drive-by shooting. Fights also had broken out when Cross was charged and at Freeman’s funeral.