Teen who murdered Australian Chris Lane sentenced to life without parole
Yahoo and Agencies
June 17, 2015, 5:21 am
Chancey Luna, the teenager who shot Australian baseball player Chris Lane dead in Oklahoma, has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Luna was just 16 when he fired a .22 calibre revolver into the back of a 22-year-old Chris Lane in a random drive-by shooting in Oklahoma.
Lane, 22, in Duncan visiting his girlfriend Sarah Harper, was jogging along an affluent area of the rural city, the car approached, Luna randomly selected the Australian and shot him just below the left shoulder.
The court heard he was a member of the infamous Crips street gang.
On the back of his orange prison jumpsuit in court on Tuesday was "Crips for Life" written in black pen.
Oklahoma judge Ken Graham has shown no mercy to 18-year-old Chancey Luna for the murder of Australia's Chris Lane. Photo: AP
"Sixteen is a very, very young age, but we are also talking about an innocent man not much older," Judge Ken Graham told Luna.
In a courthouse just five minutes' drive from where Lane spent his last moments of life gasping for breath face down in a ditch, Luna heard his sentence.
It was the sentence the jury of five women and seven men recommendeded in April after a swift three-and-a-half-day first-degree murder trial and just one hour of deliberations.
"I don't wish to be mean, but I don't care what he (Luna) thinks or how he feels," Lane's mother Donna said after the April 17 verdict.
Lane grew up playing for the Essendon Baseball Club and had a scholarship at Oklahoma's East Central University. Photo: AAP
The sentencing likely won't end the case that made headlines around the world and led to US President Barack Obama offering his "and the first lady's thoughts and prayers" to Lane's family and friends.
Luna's mother, Jennifer, told AAP his son's lawyers are working on lodging an appeal.
The murder happened in August 2013 when Luna, who recently turned 18, was in the backseat of a two-door Ford Focus driven by his 17-year-old friend Michael Jones.
A third friend, James Edwards Jr, 15, was in the front passenger seat rolling a marijuana cigarette on his Apple laptop.
Slain Australian baseballer Chris Lane's parents have heard how strangers tried to revive their son. Photo: AAP
Lane, 22, in Duncan visiting his girlfriend Sarah Harper, was jogging along an affluent area of the rural city, the car approached, Luna randomly selected the Australian and shot him just below the left shoulder.
Luna's lawyer Jim Berry asked the jury to sentence the teen to life with the possibility of parole, so he would be eligible for release in 38 years.
Lane grew up playing for the Essendon Baseball Club and had a scholarship at Oklahoma's East Central University.
Defendant Chancey Luna, right, talks with one of his attorneys, Jim Berry Photo: AP
