A federal appeals court decision Wednesday upholds the life prison term imposed during the resentencing of a man convicted of murder for a 1994 killing by members of a Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
Riley Briones Jr. was resentenced in 2016 because he was under age 18 when a Subway restaurant clerk was gunned down during a 1994 robbery and the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that juveniles couldn't be sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Briones asked for leniency during his resentencing, saying he had a dysfunctional childhood environment, wasn't involved in prison gangs and didn't shoot Subway clerk Brian Patrick Lindsay.
However, the resentencing judge again imposed a life term, ruling that Briones led a violent gang and wanted Lindsay killed.
