A Brooklyn man who killed a Long Island University honor student was sentenced yesterday to five to 15 years in prison.

Cody Nelson had been on leave from the Army when he shot Benny Lyde in the back of the head on a Crown Heights street in September 2005. He disappeared for more than three years before cops tracked him down.

Lyde’s mother, Robin, was in Brooklyn Supreme Court for the sentencing.

“I think that he’s a horrible individual. I think that he’s the scum of the earth,” she said of Nelson.