PHOENIX (AP) - A teenager was sentenced Friday to 42 years in prison for the killings of two people and the wounding of a third during the 2012 robbery of a Phoenix-area smoke shop.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge sentenced Tyson Drew Langley, 17, to two consecutive 21-year prison terms for second-degree murder and armed robbery.
Charged as an adult, Langley was 15 years old when he robbed Euphorium Emporium in Peoria.
Investigators said Langley left the store with $300 and later took a bus to California. He was arrested in Los Angeles.
He pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder in the killings of customers Kenneth Matlock, 60, and Melinda Bowen, 38, and to attempted first-degree murder of Robert Troutman, 51. He also pleaded guilty to armed robbery.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, charges of first-degree murder were dismissed.
Langley apologized for his actions, saying, “What I have done is the worst thing a person can do to another person.”
The family of one of the victims said they wanted Langley to receive the death penalty, which isn’t given to minors.
“He took someone very dear to me and for that, I hate you,” said Lathea Nevills, Brown’s sister.
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