Don Shrubshell photo

Kristopher Prince, 19, cries yesterday at the Boone County Courthouse as guilty verdicts are announced for second-degree murder and two other charges in the 2007 shooting death of Tedarrian Robinson, 17, of Columbia.

A Boone County jury yesterday convicted Kristopher Prince of killing 17-year-old Tedarrian Robinson last year and recommended he receive the maximum sentence for second-degree murder.

The jury recommended sentences totaling 50 years, including 30 years for murder, 15 years for unlawful use of a weapon and five years for armed criminal action.

Don Shrubshell photo

Boone County Circuit Judge Kevin Crane, right, confers with defense lawyer Kevin O’Brien, left, and Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight yesterday at the Prince trial. The jury later decided to recommend that Prince serve sentences totaling 50 years in prison.

Boone County Circuit Judge Kevin Crane will hand down the sentences and decide whether they should be served one after the other. Crane scheduled a sentencing hearing on Oct. 27. He could sentence Prince to less time than the jury recommends but not more.

The jury took less than three hours to convict Prince, 19, of all three charges in the April 18, 2007, slaying. The panel returned sentencing recommendations after another 90 minutes or so of deliberations.

Prosecutors in the trial’s sentencing phase highlighted Prince’s criminal record, including a robbery conviction in Minnesota. Defense lawyers called Prince’s mother, who pleaded with the jury for mercy.

In a closing argument during the verdict phase of the trial, Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight asked the jury to consider how many lives Prince put in danger by firing an assault rifle from a moving car. He later referred to Prince as a "career criminal."

"Now is the time and here is the place to send a message that this conduct absolutely will not be tolerated," Knight argued.

Robinson’s mother echoed those sentiments in between verdicts. "I hope this is a lesson to the youth of Columbia that gun violence and drug activities is not the solution," said Cherry Robinson of St. Louis.

Robinson said she wanted to see justice served for her only child, but no amount of time in prison could make up for the murder. She said she could sympathize with Prince’s family, but they can still visit him in prison.

Robinson thanked prosecutors and police for their work on the case but expressed some frustration that Prince’s co-defendant is likely to receive a lesser sentence. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a 20-year prison term for Lorenzo Ladiner, 22, in exchange for his testimony at the trial.

Prosecutors said Ladiner drove the car, and Prince was the shooter who fired at least four gunshots at the car driven by Larry McBride with Robinson as a passenger.

"I felt that one is no" more "guilty than the other," Robinson said. "They both participated in this horrific tragedy that caused me to lose my child."

Prosecution witnesses during the sentencing phase consisted mostly of Columbia police officers who testified of contact with Prince dating to 2005. That contact included traffic stops where he was uncooperative, an arrest for allegedly vandalizing a vehicle in west Columbia and a domestic disturbance involving his mother.

Ladiner, who testified during the verdict phase, returned as a witness in the penalty phase and said the feud between Prince and McBride started in Jan. 2006, when Prince recruited Ladiner to rob McBride at gunpoint after losing a lot of money to him in a dice game.

Prince also bragged of being in a gang called the "Jack Boys" that robbed drug dealers around town, Ladiner said.

Prince’s mother, Diektra Prince, tearfully tasked jurors to show mercy to her son, the father of a 1-year-old daughter. "It hurts me because that’s not my son," she said of the circumstances of Robinson’s murder. "That’s way out of character for him. That’s not my son."

Some of the members of the jury of 10 women and two men cried during the mother’s testimony.

The defense contended Ladiner lied about his involvement in the murder and attributed his actions to Prince in an effort to receive the lesser sentence. As he was leaving the courtroom, public defender Michael Byrne said he respected the jury’s decision but disagreed.

"I felt it was a heavy sentence to be giving an 18-year-old boy," Byrne said, though Prince was 17 at the time of the shooting.

Security was intense in and around the Boone County Courthouse as verdicts were announced. Columbia police, Boone County sheriff’s deputies and Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers were on duty as courtroom spectators left without incident.

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