Jury Finds Men Guilty Of Killing 6-Year-Old During Revenge Attack
SAGINAW (WWJ/AP) - A jury has convicted two men of first-degree murder in the drive-by shooting of a 6-year-old girl during a revenge attack on a man.
It took a Saginaw County jury about six hours to return the verdicts against 24-year-old Michael D. Lawrence and 22-year-old Rico A. Saldana in the death of Lay'la Jones, who was killed Aug. 29, 2012, in Saginaw. Authorities say the men were targeting another man for an earlier killing.
Lawrence and Saldana will be sentenced to mandatory life in prison without possibility of parole, although a sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
Another man charged in the case, 23-year-old JeVonne Greer, was sentenced last September to spend the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted on 18 felony counts, including murder.
Lawrence is awaiting another murder trial, to start Feb. 4, for the April 15, 2013 death of 23-year-old Angelica Olivarez, the mother of Lawrence's son. According to police, Olivarez's body was discovered after her 3-year-old son was found wandering the streets near their home. It took investigators several months to track down Lawrence, who was eventually captured in Las Vegas last August.
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