The man charged with murder after a bystander was fatally shot during exhibition driving in downtown last year pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in the death of 19-year-old Ja’Kia Winston.

Ronald Demetrius White, 24, appeared before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Michael Streety for what was supposed to be Stand Your Ground Law hearing on claims he fired the fatal shots in self-defense.

Instead, White entered a guilty plea to reckless murder. He was initially indicted on charges of murder and reckless murder. The murder charge was dismissed with his plea.

Both are Class A felonies with the same range of punishment.

Street sentenced White, of Bessemer, to 27 years in prison.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Joe Roberts and Deputy District Attorney Shawn Allen prosecuted the case. White was represented by attorney Leroy Maxell Jr.

Winston, the mother of an infant son, was shot to death Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022.

A large crowd was gathered in a parking lot in the 800 block of Second Avenue North where drivers were doing burnouts and donuts. According to police and to a video circulating on social media, a vehicle doing a burnout struck another vehicle in the parking lot.

The collision happened just after 3 a.m.

Video of the incident showed a male opening fire immediately after a silver Infiniti was struck. Officer Truman Fitzgerald said police saw White outside of that vehicle immediately after the shooting.

Winston was pronounced dead on the scene. Four other people were wounded.

Police at the time said they believed there were other shooters.

The deadly shooting prompted police and city officials to speak out. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin at the time said it “not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Woodfin, Police Chief Scott Thurmond and District Attorney Danny Carr later held a press conference to address gun violence and exhibition driving.

“My baby was very outspoken,’’ Winston’s heartbroken mother, Keizia Gaines, said at the time.

She said her daughter loved to sing and joked a lot.

“She was my go-to person,’’ Gaines said. “My world, my rider. We were together every day.”

“My soul is hurt deeply,’’ she said.

White has been held in the Jefferson County Jail on $1.5 million bond since his Aug. 8,2022, arrest.