NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man convicted of murder in a 2017 Nashville church shooting will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
A jury deliberated for less than two hours Tuesday before handing Emanuel Kidega Samson a sentence of life without parole for the murder of Melanie Crow.
His defense attorney presented evidence he suffered from severe mental illness. She said that even with parole the 25-year-old Samson would be 76 before he could leave prison.
Prosecutors asked the jury to remember Crow and the seven people who were injured during Samson’s rampage.
Samson left a note that suggested the shooting was payback for a 2015 massacre at a South Carolina black church. Samson is black and his victims were white.
He still faces sentencing on 42 additional counts, but those sentences will be largely symbolic.