WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A 14-year-old Florida boy said he was "very, very sorry" he shot to death his favorite teacher, as the teacher's relatives called him a "criminal in training" and asked a judge to lock him up for life, Reuters reported on Friday.

Reading from a short prepared statement at his sentencing hearing, Nathaniel Brazill said in a halting voice that he deeply regretted his actions of May 26, 2000, when he shot Lake Worth Middle School teacher Barry Grunow between the eyes.

"I would like to say to everyone that I am very, very sorry," said Brazill, who lifted his head and looked straight at the row where Grunow's family was seated in the Palm Beach County Courtroom.

"Mr. Grunow's family, I am sorry. And regardless of what anyone thinks, I never intended to hurt Mr. Grunow."

Brazill, who was tried as an adult and convicted in May of second-degree murder, faces 25 years to life in prison for shooting grunow on the last day of the school year.

Judge Richard Wennet said he would impose sentence on Friday.

Brazill, shackled and dressed in an orange prison uniform, sat quietly and blinked rapidly while Barry Grunow's brother Steven told Wennet the boy had not shown any remorse for killing a man who loved his family, his job and playing basketball with friends and students.

'A Criminal in Training,' Says Brother

He described the boy as a "criminal in training, an apprentice killer," and urged Wennet to imprison him for life.

"This young man sat without emotion during the trial and never to my knowledge said spontaneously he was sorry," Steven Grunow said.

Barry Grunow's wife Pam, looking shaken and reading from a prepared statement, questioned why Brazill, who was 13 when he shot his teacher, had made "such a sad choice." she declined to recommend a penalty.

"Nathaniel has consequences to face," Pam Grunow told the court. "I don't know what price Nathaniel should pay for taking Barry's life. That's not my job, I don't have the wisdom."

The boy had been sent home from school early on the last day of class for throwing water balloons. He went back to the school with a handgun taken from his grandfather's cookie tin and shot Grunow when the 35-year-old teacher refused to allow him to speak with friends in Grunow's class.

The case attracted wide attention both as an incident of school violence and because of controversy over how juveniles accused of serious crimes should be tried and punished.

Brazill's trial followed the conviction by another Florida court in March of 14-year-old Lionel Tate for battering a 6-year-old playmate to death. Tate, tried as an adult for a crime he committed when he was 12, was sentenced by a Broward County judge to life in prison.

More than a dozen of Barry Grunow's friend, relatives and coworkers testified about their loss at Thursday's hearing. One colleague played a videotape of a memorial in which students described their affection for Grunow and displayed a paper quilt pieced together from poems and drawings honoring him.

From the witness stand on Thursday, Brazill called Grunow "a great man and a great teacher" and said "words cannot explain how sorry I am.

"I understand that my choices caused a lot of pain to the Grunow's family, my friends and the kids I went to school with," he said. "As I look back on that day, I wish that it had not happened and that I could bring Mr. Grunow back."