Nearly a year after he opened fire at the 12th Stone Club in downtown Selma, killing one on New Year’s Eve, Ronald Cooper admitted his guilt Wednesday and now faces 30 years in prison.

Cooper, age 22, pled guilty to first-degree murder charges during Dallas County Circuit Court proceedings Wednesday in Selma and was sentenced by Judge Jack Meigs.

According to reports from Dec. 31, witnesses saw Cooper in an argument with a female near 12th Stone.

In testimony at a January hearing, witnesses testified Cooper was choking a woman — who was then identified as Alice West — and had a gun to her head. Eyewitnesses also said Kevin Stallworth, 29, a security guard at the club, came outside to stop the fight.

Cooper swung around and fired a handgun in his possession — a .380 pistol — and struck Stallworth in the upper torso.

Detectives with the Selma Police Department testified in January that when they arrived, Stallworth was “barely breathing.” Stallworth was transported to Vaughan Regional Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

“This was a domestic violence situation that turned deadly,” District Attorney Michael Jackson said announcing the guilty plea and sentence. “Cooper destroyed several families with these horrible acts.”