Teen who accidentally shot friend lands in jail as adult

A decade ago, 16-year-old Steven Moschella accidentally shot his best friend, killing him in the parking lot of Ridgewood High.

After pleading guilty to manslaughter by culpable negligence, he got what some at the time called a slap on the wrist and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, two years of house arrest and four years of probation. Two years later when a routine drug test came back positive for cocaine in March 2002, a circuit judge sent the teen to prison for four years.

Time in prison seemed to straighten Moschella out, and in 2006 another circuit judge granted his request for early termination of probation. Moschella seemingly stayed out of major trouble since then.

Until now.

On Friday, Moschella, now 26, was arrested by New Port Richey Police officers and cocaine was the cause again. Police pulled over Moschella after noticing his Dodge Charger on Main Street and discovering that its owner had a suspended license for failing to pay a traffic fine, a report states.

Police searched the car and found crack cocaine wrapped in aluminum foil and a pill bottle containing soma, a controlled prescription muscle relaxer, a report states.

Moschella, 3148 Chalon St., New Port Richey, is being held at the Land O' Lakes Jail on charges of cocaine possession, possession of a controlled substance and driving with license suspended or revoked.

His bail is set at $7,000.

On Jan. 19, 2000, Moschella was a sophomore at Ridgewood when he accidentally shot Teddy Niziol, also 16.

Niziol was driving his 1996 Toyota 4Runner out of the school parking lot and handed a case with a pistol inside to Moschella, who was in the back seat. Moschella has said he was holding the .22-caliber pistol when it went off, a bullet tearing through the driver's seat. Witnesses have said the teen first playfully waved the gun around, then pulled the trigger. Moschella has maintained he didn't know the pistol was loaded.

When Moschella went before a judge on the violation of probation charge, he told the court he self-medicated.

"I turned to drugs to cover the pain and the guilt I feel in my heart," he read in court from his prepared statement.