Tuesday, May 26, 2009
YOUNGSTOWN — Antwon Lanier has been sentenced to 55 years to life in prison for his role in the Aug. 6, 2005, rape and slaying of Sierra Y. Slaton, 19, of Vestal Road, whose body was found floating in McKelvey Lake the day after she was fatally shot.
Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the prison time this morning on Lanier, 26, who was found guilty by a jury on Friday of complicity to the murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery of Slaton and guilty of raping her.
The judge made the prison time in this case consecutive to the 21-year prison term he had earlier imposed on Lanier in an unrelated armed robbery and felonious assault case.
Lanier escaped the death penalty in the Slaton case because he wasn’t convicted of aggravated murder and of the death penalty specifications attached to that charge.
The capital murder trial of Antonio Jackson, 28, of Summer Street, who prosecutors say fired the fatal shots at Slaton, is to begin Oct. 16 before Judge Durkin.