High school basketball player admits firing paintball gun at five people

ATHENS - A 17-year-old Cedar Shoals High School basketball players admitted in court Thursday to firing a paintball gun at five people during an October drive-by spree. <br> <br> In a negotiated plea, Eric Christopher Turner was sentenced to 10 weekends in jail and ordered to pay fines and court fees of $1,000 after pleading guilty to simple battery, criminal damage to property and reckless conduct in Clarke County State Court. All the charges are misdemeanors. <br> <br> Judge Kent Lawrence also ordered Turner to attend counseling for anger management and placed him under two years of probation. <br> <br> Turner will continue to play basketball on weekdays despite the conviction, his coach, Ron Link, said. Turner also pleaded guilty last week to felony entering auto and received a year of first-offender probation. <br> <br> According to court and police records, Turner was one of three people who drove around Athens on the afternoon of Oct. 28, firing a paintball gun at pedestrians and passing motorists. <br> <br> Two other defendants have pleaded not guilty to related charges. No trial dates have been set for 18-year-old Fabian Darius Goings and 17-year-old LeMarcus Hemphill.