Nykerion Nealon, 19, was convicted on Monday of fatally shooting Ahmed al-Jumaili, 36, in March 2015 in the parking lot of his apartment complex.
Al-Jumaili had only been in the United States for about three weeks and authorities had thought the case might have been a hate crime. They later determined Nealon did not know al-Jumaili's ethnicity and said he may have been trying to retaliate for a shooting at his girlfriend's apartment.
Prosecutors said Nealon, who was 17 years old at the time, fired 14 rounds from an AK-47, striking al-Jumaili, who was in the snow with members of his family, once in the chest.
Al-Jumaili ran to his apartment and collapsed. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
"Coming to this country for a new start, only to have it stripped away from them in such a horrible fashion, has been unimaginable,” Alia Salem, executive director of the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group, told reporters after the guilty verdict.
Nealon faced up to 99 years in prison and was sentenced by the same jury that convicted him. A lawyer for Nealon was not immediately available for comment.
Reuters
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