FLOYD -- A Bassett teenager who went to high school during the week and sold cocaine on weekends before killing a man during a drug transaction gone awry is likely to spend 40 years in prison.

Joshua Jonathan Hairston, 19, fatally shot 39-year-old Sean Michael Neumann the night of June 5 at Neumann's house in Check.

After listening to a day and a half of testimony in the case, a jury in Floyd County Circuit Court found Hairston guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The jury recommended Hairston spend 37 years in prison -- only three years short of the maximum allowable punishment -- on the murder conviction and three years on the firearm conviction.

Hairston will be formally sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs in August. It is rare, however, for a judge not to impose a jury's recommended sentence.

Hairston had been charged with first-degree murder, but the jury apparently found that Neumann's killing wasn't premeditated. Jurors were given the options of finding Hairston not guilty or guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.

Hairston showed no apparent reaction when the verdicts were read.

He took the witness stand twice Tuesday, first giving his version of the events of June 5 and then apologizing to Neumann's family.

"If I could take my life and give Sean's life back and know that he would live right and serve God, I would," Hairston said, turning toward a large group of Neumann's family members and friends in the courtroom.

Hairston said that since he has been incarcerated, he has found God.

In describing the events that led up the shooting, Hairston said he called Neumann that day to see if he could get some marijuana. Neumann was one of his best customers, he said, buying crack a couple of times a week. Sometimes, he said, he would trade crack for marijuana because Neumann had "what I called Floyd County weed. It was always the best kind of weed."

Neumann agreed to meet Hairston at his house on Floyd Highway North.

One of Neumann's friends, Jeffrey Ryan Gibson, testified that Neumann told him he was owed about $80 for some crack that didn't weigh enough and was going to collect.

Testimony has revealed that while at the house, the intoxicated Neumann threatened and pulled a kitchen knife on a friend of Hairston's. Hairston claimed that Neumann then kneed him and slapped him across the face.

"I thought he just went crazy or something," Hairston testified.

He said he pulled out the gun and shot it at the floor, expecting Neumann to leave the room. Instead, he said, Neumann came toward him.

Afraid Neumann would grab the gun, he said, he kept shooting. Neumann was struck four times.

Asked by Floyd County Commonwealth's Attorney Stephanie Shortt why he didn't just leave instead of shooting Neumann, Hairston said Neumann kept saying to him, "We got you now." He worried that Neumann wasn't alone and that Ku Klux Klan members were outside waiting for him.

Some of Neumann's family members snickered, prompting one of Hairston's family members on the other side of the courtroom to respond, "I don't see why it's funny."

Both families declined to comment on the case after the hearing.