Gang Member Who Murdered Student for Wearing Spiderman Backpack Sentenced to Death

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- A gang member convicted in the 2008 shooting death of high school football star Jamiel Shaw was sentenced to the death penalty Friday. Pedro Espinoza was convicted on May 9 of first-degree murder. The jury also found true the special circumstance allegation that the murder was carried out to benefit a criminal street gang. In handing town the sentence, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Rose remarked on the callousness of the crime. "This defendant executed the victim in this as he lay defenseless and incapacitated on the ground, without a weapon," Rose said. 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw II, a standout football player at Los Angeles High School, was shot and killed near his Arlington Heights home in March 2008. Four days later, police arrested Espinoza, an 18th Street gang member who was in the country illegally.

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