He's very lucky only to be tried for second attempted murder as his intentions were premeditated. He already admitted to plannning on killing more than one family member and went there with that intention. It wasn't a random killing. He should have been convicted of first degree in my opinion and sent to prison for life. No doubt he will becomes someones bitch once put in jail. I can see exactly how his defense will argue the case....."Since the ending of the relationship it has caused undue mental anguish and he was not sound of mind and was suffering from depression which lead to the shooting". Then of course they will get people to testify that he is a good person who you would not expect this of him at anytime. Send him to jail, he's killed someones Mom.
At ~16 to 22 years old, I knew a huge amount of people. At least two of them ended up killing someone. Most turned into decent adults. IMO, it's a shame we don't see the 'good people' talked about more often.