A Gwinnett County jury finds three defendants guilty of killing a Grayson High School freshman over his high-end sneakers.
Jurors deliberated five hours before finding Andrew Murray, Tavaughn Saylor, and Larnell Sillah guilty on all but one of the 18 counts against them.
The three are accused of ambushing 14-year-old Paul Sampleton Jr. when he got off the school bus December 19, 2012, tying him up and then ransacking his mother’s townhome before shooting him in the head.
Prosecutor Mike Morrison says Sillah and two other Grayson High School students originally planned to rob Sampleton. But Murray, Sillah’s uncle, and his friend Saylor cut the younger two out of the plan. Morrison says it was Murray who placed a pillow over the teen’s head and shot him three times.
While none of the three defendants testified during the trial, all spoke when given the opportunity prior to sentencing.
Saylor, who was the first to speak, said while he was sorry for Sampleton’s family, he did not kill the teen.
“I didn’t kill a 14-year-old for his sneakers,” he told the courtroom.
Murray and Sillah also proclaimed their innocence blaming Morrison for painting a picture of their guilt to jurors.
“I’m a different breed of a 15-year-old,” said Sillah. “But I’m not going to kill someone over their (explicative) shoes.”
All said they would be back on appeal.
Five of Sampleton’s family members spoke during the sentencing phase including his mother Stephanie Stone. At one point she yelled at the defendants who refused to look at her.
“You didn’t know Paul, you looked at him as a piece of property,” she said.
Sampleton’s father, Paul Sampleton Sr., blamed a lack of a father figure in the three defendants’ lives telling Murray he had a chance to be a role model for his nephew, Sillah.
Afterwards, he told WSB’s Sandra Parrish it’s been a long road for justice.
“We got what we wanted; this is what this family needed for this healing process.”
All three defendants were given two concurrent life sentences, one without the possibility of parole. Murray and Saylor received an additional 120 years to be served consecutively and Sillah received an additional 135 years because of his involvement in the theft of guns from a home not far from the murder scene several months before.