An Albany man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with a deadly 2023 shooting that left one teenager dead and another critically injured.
Eric Chapman Jr., 20, admitted in court Friday that he shot and killed 18-year-old Javone Sims Jr. on June 22, 2023, just days before his trial was set to begin. Albany County Court Judge Andra Ackerman accepted Chapman’s plea. He now faces a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors said Chapman fatally shot Sims Jr. in the backyard of a Third Street residence, where a 17-year-old was also critically wounded. Chapman himself was shot during the incident — reportedly the second time he has been wounded by gunfire.
Chapman’s violent history has been well-documented. The Times Union previously detailed his record as an example of how New York’s Raise the Age law has struggled to rehabilitate young offenders.
He was first arrested at age 12 for displaying a gun at a local mall. At 15, he allegedly fired a weapon inside another crowded mall. By 16, he was charged in a robbery in which he threatened to “blow [a victim’s] head off” before stealing cash from a store register. Despite prosecutors’ attempts to keep his case in adult court, a Family Court judge ruled he could still benefit from juvenile services due to his age, background, and personal challenges.
Chapman later escaped from a juvenile facility after jumping out of a staff vehicle in Albany.
In April 2024, Chapman was sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison on two separate weapons charges — six and a half years for fleeing police while armed in October 2023, and another seven and a half years for being caught with a loaded handgun and high-capacity magazine in July 2024.
His upcoming murder sentence will run concurrently with those existing convictions.
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