Man Gets Life Term in Shooting That Left Teen-Ager Paralyzed : Trials: Wheelchair-bound Kevin Natale, 15, pleads with the judge to impose the maximum sentence on his Ventura neighbor, who had left the courtroom.

Following tearful speeches by the family of his victim, Brian Trent Adams of Ventura was sentenced to life in prison Friday for forcing his way into the home of his 15-year-old neighbor and shooting and paralyzing the teen-ager.

Adams, however, was not in the courtroom to hear of the family’s pain and suffering. In an unusual move, Adams had invoked his right to be absent from the courtroom while Kevin Natale and his family spoke before the life sentence was handed down.

Adams, 23, who had appeared briefly Friday in Superior Court before the testimony, left the courtroom, smiling.

Kevin, wheelchair-bound with a bullet still lodged in his shoulder, pleaded with Judge Charles R. McGrath to give Adams the maximum sentence.

“I’m serving a life sentence for this and I didn’t do anything,” said Kevin, a formerly athletic boy who on Friday sported a baseball-motif tie. “I’ll never walk again. It’ll be a hard life and I wanted you to know that Brian should get whatever hardest sentence there is because that’s what my sentence is.”

On Jan. 12, 1994, Adams, wearing latex gloves and carrying handcuffs, burst into Kevin’s home in the Ventura Keys, chased him down and shot him with a 9-millimeter handgun.

Adams allegedly had been angry that the youth had accidentally hit Adams’ car nine months earlier with a ball while playing catch in the neighborhood.

John MacIntyre, Kevin’s grandfather, traveled from Northern California to speak Friday at the sentencing.

“How much has this changed our lives? Words are the voices of the heart, and there are no words that can describe the heartbreak of the shooting of Kevin Natale,” MacIntyre said. “His dream was to be a professional football player. Now he’ll never have that opportunity. He was high scorer in his first basketball game.

“He never got the chance to play a second game.”

Adams pleaded guilty Aug. 16 to charges of premeditated attempted murder.

Adams’ attorney, George Eskin, told the court Friday that Adams was mentally ill when he attacked his neighbor.

McGrath sentenced Adams to life in prison and required him to pay Kevin $35,900 in restitution from his prison wages. To that sentence, McGrath added four years for using a gun and three additional years for causing great bodily injury. Adams will serve those two terms before the life sentence, but prosecutors said Friday that Adams could come up for parole in 12 years.

Hugging one another and crying after Friday’s court session, Kevin’s family vowed to oppose any future parole attempts and celebrated, bittersweetly, Adams’ life sentence.

“This is the end of something that needed to be ended, like a funeral,” said Kevin’s mother, Diane MacIntyre. “Now we can concentrate on Kevin and his rehabilitation. He needs to look forward and become as strong as possible. Now, we all want to be together . . . and celebrate closure to something that’s been so awful.”

Next week, Kevin, who was hospitalized for five months after the shooting, will undergo more surgery in Northern California in an attempt to regain movement in his right arm.

A Kevin Natale Trust fund, which so far has raised about $15,000, has been used for medical expenses and to buy a wheelchair-accessible van. Contributions may be made to the trust fund at American Commercial Bank, 300 S. Mills Road, Ventura, Calif. 93003.