NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Men sentenced to 50 years for a double execution got their sentences shaved to 35 years each for testimony that helped convict the ringleader in what started as a kidnap-for-ransom scheme.
Gregory Vincent and Layman Foster Jr. both had pleaded guilty to manslaughter of Calyisse Perkins and Fitzgerald Phillips, two 19-year-olds killed in an abandoned house after $10,000 ransom was demanded in April 2009.
The Times-Picayune reports that Criminal District Judge Lynda Van Davis resentenced them Friday to 35 years.
On Thursday, she sentenced 25-year-old Kenneth Barnes to life in prison for first-degree murder. A jury convicted Barnes in early February but deadlocked over the death penalty
Vincent and Foster testified that Barnes set out to kidnap Phillips because he felt he’d been cheated in a marijuana deal.
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Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
 
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