Birmingham (Alabama): A teenager convicted in the fatal beating death of a used car dealer from India faces a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Rickey Coleman, who was 17 at the time of the May 2005 murder, was convicted Thursday of murder.
The victim, Kavinderpal Banga, 44, who moved to the United States in 1990 from India, was robbed and beaten with a crowbar at his car dealership in a Birmingham suburb.
Coleman, now 18, is one of five teenagers charged with capital murder in the May 25, 2005.
But because he was 17 at the time of the crime, prosecutors were barred from seeking the death penalty.
Rickey Coleman went to Tarrant police in 2005 to say he'd witnessed a murder, but soon confessed to bashing in the skull of a used-car dealer, testimony Tuesday showed in Coleman's capital murder trial.
The guilty verdict left Banga's sister in tears.
"I should feel at peace, but I don't," said Banga's sister, Binno Manda, who traveled from her home in London for the trial.
According to testimony, Coleman hit Banga twice on his head with a tire iron. As Banga sat slumped in the desk chair, Coleman grabbed the car title and a bill of sale from Banga's desk, as well as the car keys.
Coleman is the first of the defendants to go on trial. Co-defendant Randon Neal pleaded guilty to felony murder earlier this month.
Also charged were Nintonya Matthews, LaMarcus Coleman and a 15-year-old who was not named because he is being prosecuted as a juvenile.
Prosecutors Jim Neill and Michael Streety contend that Coleman and his friends had discussed stealing cars from Banga's lot on Pinson Valley Parkway for about two months before the attack.
Coleman and Matthews went into the office with Banga under the guise of buying a 2001 Crown Victoria from him, testimony showed.
Matthews was arrested the day after the killing, while driving one of the stolen cars. Police found Banga's credit cards and driver's license inside.
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