Phyllisha Williams, the mother of shooting victim Anthony Lashawn Williams, fought through tears in a New London courtroom on Monday, standing just a few feet away from her son’s killer.

“Why?” Williams said. “Why? I loved you. You used to sit at my table and we used to eat together. I trusted you. Why did you have to take his life? You destroyed my family.”

Williams spoke to 43-year-old Phillip Wise, a former friend of Anthony Williams who fatally shot him on July 21, 2020, following an argument on Lake Street in Norwich, where Wise was living at the time.

Wise, originally charged with murder, had previously pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison and five years of probation.

Police said Wise got out of a vehicle to shoot Williams, who was recently released from prison, and then stood over him as Williams asked his friend not to shoot him again. The reason the two were arguing is unclear, but Superior Court Judge John Newson said it was sad that it boiled down to “killing someone for talking (expletive).”

“One Black man killed another Black man for some nonsense on the streets ― over words,” said Newson, who grew up in the neighborhood of where the shooting occurred and is Black.

“Never, never, never should it get to taking another man’s life,” Newson said.

Wise spoke briefly in court, but his attempted apology to the family was cut short by a response from family members, one of whom said, “It’s too late to apologize. You killed him.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Tom DeLillo, who prosecuted the case, called the shooting “a complete tragedy.” DeLillo said he opted for a plea agreement rather than a trial because of issues concerning reliability of two key witnesses that left “no real certainty of a conviction.“

Defense attorney Joseph Lopez, who represents Wise, agreed and said, “It was a reasonable resolution where neither side is happy.”

Benita Christian, Anthony Williams' aunt, said Wise deserved more prison time than he was getting and thinks Wise’s initial refusal to admit guilt had dragged the family through years of suffering.

“Four years it took to do this. He should have just said, ‘I did it,’ ” Christian said.

g.smith@theday.com