He was her only child.

After Caroline Gaughan’s husband died, she and her son, Mark, created a pact to stick together.

They lived together, regularly starting their mornings with an exchange of “I love yous” before heading out the door.

Their nights ended similarly, sometimes with one texting the other to make sure they were safe and heading home.

So when Caroline Gaughan arrived home in the early morning of Aug. 23, and her son was not there, she texted him: “Hello, how are you? Are you going home tonight? Let me know. Keep safe, and I love you.”

He responded at 4:22 a.m. saying, “No, not tonight. Love you.”

Less than an hour later, 23-year-old Mark Gaughan was shot to death by a friend, Allysandra Blea, 20.

Blea’s public defender, Robert O’Brien, said she was high on marijuana and drunk from vodka when she pulled the trigger.

The shooting happened while Blea and another friend were posing for photos with Mark Gaughan’s gun, authorities said.

District Judge Jacqueline Bluth on Tuesday sentenced Blea, who pleaded guilty to a count of first-degree kidnapping and a count of involuntary manslaughter, to five years to life in prison.

Caroline Gaughan said that before the shooting she had a long talk with her son, who had just gotten his license to carry concealed, and Blea, who she said had access to his gun.

“I tried to convince Mark to stop carrying that gun around her, but Mark trusted her,” Caroline Gaughan said. “Now, ‘not tonight’ is my forever.”

Caroline Gaughan sat at the witness stand, trembling as she spoke to Bluth. About a dozen of her son’s friends cried in the gallery.

Blea, who did not speak during the hearing, dropped her head while she faced the mother.

Caroline Gaughan described her son as kind, family-oriented, and thoughtful. She said he never missed a birthday or Mother’s Day, always celebrating her with surprises.

Mark Gaughan had worked at the Nevada Distilling Company and modeled on the side. His mother said he dreamed of being a pilot in the military.

She spoke for nearly 15 minutes, telling the judge, among other things, how as a cancer survivor since 2017 she had elevated markers since the death of her son, and how she misses the sound of his voice.

Caroline Gaughan said she went to the Philippines, where she is from, for five months, but she still could not escape her heartbreak.

“I don’t know anymore what is my purpose in life without my son,” she said. “The happy Caroline that was full of life is now gone. The untimely death of my son is so huge and painful.”

When the mother finished, she walked through the well back to her seat in the gallery, holding up a framed photo of her and her son.

Bluth said that she had never received as many letters of support for a victim as she did for Mark Gaughan.

“The letters told the story of Mark and what a wonderful person he was, how much he absolutely loved his mom,” Bluth said.

She said she had also never received as many letters of support for a defendant as she had for Blea. The judge said friends and family described her as patient, loving and docile.

But authorities said Blea had posted photos of her holding firearms to her head and talked about killing prostitutes before the shooting.

Investigators said she had a “fascination with firearms” and had expressed a desire to shoot people in the face.

“I would be amiss if I didn’t say the individual presented to me in the phone dump is just such a different human than the one that’s discussed in those letters,” Bluth said. “The goth look and the stuff written (online), I don’t know what that was about, but I do know that this was a case that should not have gone to trial.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.