DETROIT – A judge is sticking with a no-parole sentence for a young man convicted of abducting and killing a Detroit-area sub shop customer whose body was found in an abandoned home in 2009.
Ihab Masalmani was granted a second hearing because the U.S. Supreme Court says convicted killers under 18 can't automatically be given a life sentence. But after hearing evidence about Masalmani's troubled childhood and other issues, Macomb County Judge Diane Druzinski said Tuesday that a no-parole sentence still fits the crime.
Masalmani is now 23 years old but was just shy of being 18 at the time.
"The defendant was only four months away from being an adult," Druzinski said. ‘There is nothing in the testimony or the evidence that suggests treating the defendant differently from an 18 year old would be warranted in this case."
Masalmani's lawyers had argued for a chance at parole.
"[The fact that] Mr. Masalamani was 17, Mr. Taylor was 16, was sort of not given adequate consideration, as well as all the other factors that went into the circumstances of the offense," said defense attorney Valerie Newman.
A co-defendant, Robert Taylor, was also under 18. Druzinski also re-sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors said Masalmani and Taylor randomly carjacked Landry in August 2009 at a Quiznos restaurant, drove him to the empty house, used his bank cards to withdraw money at a gas station and then executed him. Landry's body was found in a vacant Detroit house.
"The image of them walking Matthew from one house into another house and putting him on his knees, putting a gun to the back of his head, and shooting him, is an image that wakes me up in the middle of the night in a panic. I have to live with that. That's my life sentence," said Landry's mother, Doreen Landry.
Masalmani was caught three days after Landry's disappearance during a botched carjacking at Walmart.
He was identified through surveillance video at the bank robbery and the gas station.