2 Men Sentenced In Fatal Abduction Of Teenage Mom
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Two men have received prison terms for their role in the abduction and killing of a teenage mother during a robbery in Atlantic City.
Federal prosecutors say 21-year-old Aziz Sanders received a 30-year sentence on Wednesday, while 22-year-old DeShawn Hicks got a 20-year term. Both men had pleaded guilty to using a firearm and aiding and abetting the use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
The Atlantic City men will also have to serve five years of supervised release once they are freed from prison, and each will have to pay $1.5 million in restitution to Nadirah Ruffin's family.
Prosecutors say the men and a female acquaintance, 27-year-old Shamerria Smith, planned to rob a man who had brutally beat Smith's cousin in March 2011. Ruffin happened to be at the home when the robbery occurred.
When Ruffin recognized Smith's voice, prosecutors say Ruffin was taken from the home at gunpoint and eventually driven to the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, where she was shot in the head.
Smith ordered the men to shoot Ruffin, saying she couldn't do it because she also was a mother. Prosecutors say Sanders eventually shot Ruffin in the head, killing her, and her body was dumped in the Schuylkill River.
The body was found the following month in Philadelphia.
Smith received a 35-year prison term when she was sentenced last month.
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
You may also be interested in these stories:
