SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A southwest Missouri man who stabbed his classmate to death because he thought he was a police informant has been sentenced to life in prison.
Eighteen-year-old Gabriel Roche of Republic was sentenced Monday in the December 2011 death of 17-year-old Weston North. Roche took North to a secluded area and stabbed him before slitting his throat.
Greene County prosecutors and North’s mother sought a first-degree murder sentence, which would have kept Roche in prison for life.
Instead, Judge Calvin Holden convicted Roche of second-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison, which will make him eligible for parole. He was also sentenced to a concurrent three-year term for armed criminal action.
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