Even though he was the shooter, Brian Rayford was the first of four defendants to come clean about the murder of Oak Harbor teenager John “Jay” Johnson last fall.

The 20-year-old took responsibility early on, his attorney said. He was the first to plead guilty and agreed to testify against the others.

And he was the only one who has shown real remorse over the senseless killing, several of Johnson’s friends and family members said in Island County Superior Court Friday afternoon.

Rayford, an Oak Harbor resident, spoke briefly at his sentencing hearing.

“I can’t stand here and act like I understand what I put everyone through,” he said.

Rayford pleaded guilty in February to first-degree murder in the Nov. 10, 2015, shooting. Four friends took part in the killing, which was payback for a $400 impound fee caused by Johnson.

A couple dozen people came to observe or speak at Rayford’s sentencing hearing, even though the sentence really wasn’t in doubt. Under the terms of a plea bargain worked out four months ago, both the prosecution and the defense agreed to recommend to the judge that Rayford serve a sentence of just over 24 years in prison.

Judge Alan Hancock agreed and handed the sentence of 291.5 months to Rayford.

Hancock said he remembered Johnson from juvenile drug court and was convinced that the young man was going to turn his life around. He said Johnson, who was just 17 years old when he was killed, was full of charisma and had a wonderful life ahead of him.

“He had a smile that could light up a room,” the judge said.

Under the terms of the plea bargain, Rayford provided investigators with a taped statement and agreed to testify at trial against his codefendants, though that didn’t turn out to be necessary.

In May, David Nunez, 20, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree with a firearms enhancement. He received the longest sentence of any of the codefendants with 25 years in prison.

Investigators said that Nunez hatched the plan to kill Johnson because he was angry that the teenager borrowed his car and left him with a $400 impound fee after fleeing from the state patrol.

Rayford’s attorney, Jennifer Bouwens, claimed that Nunez “tricked and manipulated” Rayford into carrying out the shooting; Nunez also provided him with the gun.

“He was friends with Jay,” she said of Rayford, “and he had no reason to do this himself.”

Hancock said the “twisted and distorted bonds of loyalty” between the two young men led to the horrific crime.

Investigators and prosecutors agreed that the two other defendants were less culpable in the killing.

Derek Reeder, 17, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to conspiracy to commit murder. He will be incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility until he is 21 years old.

Kitana Hernandez, 19, pleaded guilty to rendering criminal assistance in the first degree and received an exceptional sentence of three years in prison.

At her sentencing hearing, Hancock also spoke about her senseless loyalty to Nunez, with whom she was in a relationship prior to the shooting.

Friday, Chief Criminal Prosecutor Eric Ohme called the crime “incomprehensible.”

“The defendant owes a debt that will not and cannot be repaid,” he said, though he — like many others — pointed out that Rayford was quick to take responsibility for the act.

Shari Mattson-Cooper, Johnson’s grandmother and guardian, spoke at the hearing, as she did at the other three. She said the murder ended the Johnson bloodline.

“Why did you take my Jay from me?” she asked. “He was all I had left.”

Detective Ed Wallace with the Island County Sheriff’s Office read a letter from Johnson’s uncle, Ryan Mattson.

Mattson wrote that Johnson’s will was strong and he held on until his family was with him at the hospital.

“Do you know what it’s like to sit with your family  and literally see them take their last breath,” he wrote, “watch as that shine, that love in his eyes, shines for the last time?”

Mattson made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the sentences for any of the defendants.

“This is not justice,” he wrote.

According to Wallace’s report, Hernandez drove Rayford, Reeder and Nunez to Johnson’s house on North Whidbey on the night of the shooting. It was unclear whether Reeder and Hernandez knew about the plans to shoot Johnson, though they knew that something was going to happen, Ohme said in earlier hearings.

After speaking with Johnson briefly at the front door, Rayford pulled a .22-caliber handgun “out of the pocket of his hoodie, pointed the gun at Johnson, closed his eyes, turned his head and pulled the trigger,” Wallace wrote.

Johnson was struck in the head and died several days later at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Friday, even the judge was swept up in the sadness of the case as he noted a montage featuring photos of Johnson that was projected in the courtroom.

“May he rest in peace,” he said, his voice breaking. “That will end our proceedings.”