Feb. Hearings Set To Review Teens' No-Parole Sentences In Matt Landry Murder
MOUNT CLEMENS (WWJ/AP) - A metro Detroit judge will hold hearings in February to re-examine the life-without-parole prison sentences for two convicted murderers who were under 18 when their victim was abducted and killed.
Macomb County Circuit Judge Diane Druzinski took the action Wednesday in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing mandatory life sentences for people who commit crimes as juveniles.
Ihab Maslamani was 17 and Robert Taylor was 16 when they abducted Matt Landry outside a Quiznos shop in Eastpointe in 2009. Prosecutors say 21-year-old Landry was held for four days before he was shot in the head. His body was later found inside a burned out vacant house in Detroit.
The teens were convicted of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
An evidentiary hearing for Maslamani is Feb. 19-20 and Taylor's is Feb. 21. Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith previously told WWJ Newsradio 950 he'll argue that the teens never get parole.
"This poor kid stops for a sandwich and gets beaten, kidnapped, robbed and then ultimately murdered," said Smith. "You know, [Masalmani] and his co-defendant had plenty of time to reflect on this over the course of a whole weekend, essentially, when he was missing."
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