AURORA | A man accused of killing a 15-year-old boy he believed was breaking into his home is facing between 10 and 26 years in prison after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Eric Holloway, 25, was scheduled to go on trial this week in Arapahoe County District Court, but he reached a deal Sept. 13 with prosecutors.

In exchange for Holloway pleading guilty to second-degree murder, prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge against him. Had Holloway been convicted at trial of first-degree murder, he would have faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

Lisa Pinto, a spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office, said Holloway is facing a sentence of 10 to 26 years in prison at his sentencing hearing Nov. 4.

Police say Holloway killed Jason Perez-Gonzalez at an apartment complex near East Harvard Avenue and South Peoria Street on Sept. 6, 2011. Officers arrested Holloway a short time after the shooting and he has been held in the Arapahoe County Jail since.

According to an arrest affidavit filed against Holloway, he told police he was playing video games on his couch the morning of the shooting when he heard a knock at his door. He didn’t answer the door because he wasn’t expecting anybody. Holloway said he heard another noise at the door and when he looked through the peephole saw two Hispanic men at his door. One appeared to be trying to cut the screen open, he said.

After that, Holloway ran to his bedroom and grabbed a .40 caliber pistol and ran back to the door. When he opened the door the two males, who were both carrying backpacks, fled down the stairs.

Holloway told police he fired two or three times at the fleeing males from the top of the stairs and then chased them, firing several more shots at them.

When he came around the corner of a building, he found one of the males with a gunshot wound and asked “Why did you do that?”

The boy told him “wrong house.”

Holloway then ran back to the apartment, changed clothes and ran to his car with his girlfriend.

When police asked Holloway why he didn’t report the incident to police, he said it was because the gun wasn’t registered and because he had about an ounce of marijuana on him. Police later learned the gun had been reported stolen in Denver.

Holloway had been arrested on minor charges before, but the homicide charge was his first serious arrest, according to state records.