ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A boy was just 14 years old when he shot a convenience store clerk in the chest. He'll go to prison as an adult. Even with a plea deal, Travis Simpson will pay the price.

"I feel as if I should deserve another chance. I just can't stress how much I wish he can get out of that wheel chair," Simpson said Wednesday in court at his sentencing hearing.

Simpson said all the right things Wednesday about the convenience store clerk he shot in October 2006. Last month, the 15-year-old entered a plea of no contest in hopes Judge Bob Wattles would sentence him as a youthful offender and not as an adult.

Simpson was convicted of attempted murder for shooting Prashant Bhavsar during an argument between Bhavsar and Simpson's friend. The incident left the 44-year-old Indian immigrant paralyzed.

"I don't remember anything what happened on that day," Bhavsar said.

Judge Wattles found himself in a difficult position because the state legislature doesn't allow anything between the six-year maximum sentence for a juvenile and the 25-year minimum sentence for an adult.

Simpson's mother erupted when the judge chose the stiffer penalty.

"My baby! My baby! My baby!" Julie Simpson cried.

She left the courtroom in tears and in no mood to speak with the media moments after the judge referred to her son as a time bomb looking to go off.

"There's got to be a better way. It's one thing to be tough on crime and it's another thing to throw young lives away," said Simpson's attorney, Bryan Hugo.

Hugo said he plans to find a way to get the judge to reconsider his decision.