JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A young Kansas man whose father was slain in 2008 is getting a help from an unusual source in paying tuition for his freshman year at a Missouri college.

Colby Leeper of Wichita has received $1,500 from an organization run by death row inmates called Compassion, which distributes funds from donations and artwork sold by the prisoners.

Leeper’s father, 33-year-old Edward “Brian” Leeper Jr., was shot and killed in November 2008 in the parking lot of the Stratford House Inn in Wichita, where he had been staying. The Joplin Globe reports Josh Matchett was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and is serving a 20-year sentence.

In addition to the Compassion scholarship, Leeper also is getting track-and-field and academic scholarships to attend Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri.