ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - A man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for the death of a man who was stabbed in the heart outside a Virginia convenience store.
The sentencing handed down to 35-year-old Christopher Lashay King on Thursday includes indefinite probation upon his release, news outlets report. He was convicted of second-degree murder in the October 2018 death of 24-year-old Travon Lee.
Surveillance video of that night shows King armed with a knife and fighting with another man outside the convenience store. What caused the fight remains unclear. King has said he acted in self-defense. Video shows the two unsuccessfully attacking each other before King chases the other man toward Lee, who was soon stabbed.
Prosecutors say Lee was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other man in the fight wasn’t criminally charged in the case.
“Unlike almost every other case I have had involving violence, murder or otherwise, this one involves someone who is not before the court who introduced violence and threat and thuggery to the whole situation,” Roanoke Circuit Court Judge William Broadhurst said during the close of King’s August bench trial.
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