Life, No Parole Sentences Stand For Men In Matt Landry Murder
MOUNT CLEMENS (WWJ/AP) - A judge has ruled that two young men will stay in prison for the rest of their lives without parole for murdering a man days after abducting him from a metro Detroit sub shop.
Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Diane Druzinski on Tuesday decided that Ihab Masalmani and Robert Taylor should not be given a chance at parole in the 2009 death of Matt Landry.
"The judge noted several factors that the United States Supreme Court said she had to weigh, including the fact that Masalmani was only four months away from being 18," WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton reported from outside the courtroom. "She also noted the circumstances of the crime, that he killed in cold blood, execution style."
The sentencing reconsideration stemmed from a U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing mandatory life sentences for people who commit crimes as juveniles.
Masalmani was 17 and Taylor was 16 when they abducted Landry outside a Quiznos shop in Eastpointe on Aug 9, 2009. Prosecutors say 21-year-old Landry was held for four days before he was shot in the back of the head. His body was later found inside a burned-out, vacant house in Detroit. Police said he was a random target.
The men were convicted of first-degree murder but because they were under 18 at the time, their sentences had to be reconsidered. Attorneys for Masalmani were hoping for a 25 year sentence.
"The judge also noted in both cases that the prospects of rehabilitation were minimal," Langton said. "The only thing similar that would justify any kind of resentencing was the fact that both of them had a terrible family life."
Landry's mother, Doreen, was emotional after the ruling but expressed some relief that her son's killers won't have a chance to enter the free world ever again.
"The image of them walking Matthew from one house into another house, and putting him on his knees, putting a gun to the back of his head and shooting him is an image that wakes me up in the middle of the night in a panic. I have to live with that. That is my life sentence," she said.
Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith previously told WWJ Newsradio 950 that the Masalmani and Taylor deserve no-parole sentences.
"This poor kid stops for a sandwich and gets beaten, kidnapped, robbed and then ultimately murdered," said Smith. "You know, [Masalmani] and his co-defendant had plenty of time to reflect on this over the course of a whole weekend, essentially, when he was missing."
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