Mikkail Jamal Shaw, 21, one of the men who robbed Scotty McCreery and his roommates at gunpoint in 2014, pleaded guilty to the charges on June 27. Today (June 28), Shaw was sentenced to at least 17 years in prison for three counts of second-degree kidnapping, three counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, one count of burglary and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. Shaw refused to give up the names of his accomplices.

Scotty was sitting in the front row of the Wake County, North Carolina, courtroom today as the hearing proceeded.

Shaw apologized to Scotty and his friends before the judge handed down the sentence, which included a minimum of 204 months in prison, mental health counseling and vocational training while in prison.

“I made a very bad decision, and I apologize for that,” Shaw said. “I have to take it in stride and better myself.”

Scotty chronicled the encounter in his 2016 book, Go Big or Go Home, describing the home invasion by several armed men that took place while he and his friends were watching Gladiator and eating burgers at their apartment in Raleigh, N.C., at 2 a.m. on May 5, 2014. With a gun pointed at Scotty’s head, the robbers made off with wallets, phones, money and a computer.

Shaw turned himself in to police two days after the robbery and was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery.

Here are a few excerpts from Scotty’s book:

“Get down! Get on the floor and give us everything you got,” the intruders shouted. “There are shouts, screams, and curses. My friends are saying, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’”

“It’s not long before I feel the barrel of a pistol against my forehead. This is real and raw, and I’m thinking I’m going to die any second.”

“Please, God, I pray, “don’t let them kidnap us.”

“I’d be fine and content to have gone my whole life not ever feeling a gun pressed against my forehead. But God is in control, and all I can say is a very, very relieved “Thank You, Jesus.”