WHITE CLOUD, Mich. (WOOD) — A man whose grandson was shot and killed with a gun in his home has been sentenced for violating Michigan’s safe storage law.

On Monday, Karl Robart was sentenced to 38 months to 15 years with 30 days credit for a firearms safe storage violation with a minor present and inflicted death to another. He pleaded no contest in August.

The shooting happened on April 1 at Robart’s home. He and his wife, Theresa Robart, left a 12-gauge shotgun behind a bedroom door in their home outside Newaygo, near where their grandchildren were watching movies. Braxton Dykstra, 5, was shot and killed when his 6-year-old cousin picked up the gun, pointed it at Braxton, and pulled the trigger, killing him.

“Common sense tells you if you have guns in your room, don’t let children near,” Domynic Dysktra, Braxton’s father, said in court Monday. “The people we thought we could trust with our kids failed. I will never get to hug my son again. I will never get to hear his precious voice or his silly laugh.”

He said the shooting “destroyed the lives” of his family.

“Not just ours — the other grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. And destroyed a little 8-year-old girl’s life, Braxton’s big sister. She has to live every day knowing what happened when that gunshot went off,” Dykstra said.

Karl Robart told police he had no idea the weapon was loaded. He said he had it for self-defense and to kill critters. It had been in the same spot for 10 years, he told police.

“All this stuff about, ‘It couldn’t have been loaded, it had to be unloaded’ — that’s all you trying to minimize, trying to get yourself out of this situation or have you live with yourself,” Newaygo County Circuit Court Judge Robert Springstead said. “That gun was loaded and you knew it was.”

Springstead said Braxton’s death was a tragedy that never should have happened.

“This tragedy was 100% avoidable. All you had to do was listen to the people in your life that were telling you to put these loaded guns away and you didn’t,” he said.

Theresa Robart has also been charged. Her trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 30.