Young killer draws Fla. life sentence

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 1 (UPI) -- A Florida judge departed upward from sentencing guidelines and imposed a life sentence on a 17-year-old youth convicted of second-degree murder.

The jury in the case of Demetrius Carey, aged 14 at the time of the 2005 slaying of Elena Carrasco, 56, in Hollywood, Fla., reduced his criminal liability from first-degree murder to second-degree murder without a deadly weapon, apparently believing his defense that someone else shot and killed Carrasco. But Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy imposed a sentence usually reserved for first-degree murder anyway, the Miami Herald reported Monday.

''This is just as surprising and disappointing as the jury's verdict,'' Johnny McCray Jr., Carey's attorney, told the Herald. "What this says to me is the judge didn't agree with the jury.''

Prosecutors said Carrasco was shot to death on her front steps as she was returning from a grocery store and contended that Carey was the trigger man. McCray argued that while Carey may have known who committed the murder, he didn't pull the trigger.

Carey could have received the minimum of 22 years in prison from the judge. Two of Carrasco's family members asked him to put Carey in prison permanently, the newspaper said.