COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado man who shot a 14-year-old boy over a missing cellphone has been sentenced to life in prison.
The Colorado Springs Gazette reports 33-year-old Riccardo Kirven was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder and immediately sentenced for the July 2015 death of Desmond Smith.
Prosecutors say Kirven’s 18-year-old nephew asked him for help retrieving a phone that he said had been stolen. The nephew drove Kirven to a park, and Kirven reached through a car window with a .40-caliber pistol and fired several rounds at three teens.
Smith was shot in the back.
Kirven claimed he fired in self-defense, saying he heard one of the teens whistle and reach for a gun.
