Sonya Purifoy tried to raise her son right. She'd gotten off welfare to give her kids a better life and sent her boy to Catholic school in hopes of steering him toward a good future.

But her efforts didn't save her son.

Eric Harris died when he was 30, at the hands of a Colorado Springs teen, Adam Drake.

Reached in recent months, Purifoy declined to talk about her son or his murder.

But the New York mother gave voice to her family's sorrow - and gratitude for Drake's life sentence - in a poignant letter to El Paso District Judge David Parrish.

"First I would like to thank the state of Colorado. You have all restored my faith in the criminal justice system. Eric was not just another black person who got killed and nobody cared. You all cared."

Purifoy thanked everyone who helped solve her son's murder and gave her support, specifically the Colorado Springs Police Department, victim's advocates and the district attorney's office.

"I am forever grateful," she wrote in her letter, dated Sept. 25, 1999.

"Through all of this, everyone involved can tell you that I never portrayed my son as a saint.

"Eric had his problems and sometimes a lifestyle that I did not accept at times.

"Eric was not just some ghetto black man. He was a Catholic school educated kid who came from a decent home. I got off welfare 27 years ago and went to work so my children could have a better life.

"But somehow Eric just got with the wrong crowd of people. But I do believe that while he was out there, that he was truly trying to get his life back together. Mr. Drake cheated him out of that.

"I feel somewhat sorry for Adam Drake because he is still really a child, and most of all I feel sorry for his mother. But like me, they will never have to worry about where he is or what he's doing.

"Mr. Drake will never take anyone else's life, and he will never get in trouble again if he is behind bars.

"As hard as I know that can be to a parent to accept, sometimes it can be a relief.

"My son is in a better place, and that is what I truly believe. I never have to worry about him again. I always know where he is and what he's doing.

"Somehow it might be better for Mr. Drake to wind up in prison. At least he's alive, and maybe his poor mother will not have to go through what I did."

langbeins@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2536