2 get life in prison for triple homicide at Pa. birthday bash

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Two men will spend life in prison without parole for fatally shooting three people after a birthday party near Pittsburgh.

Allegheny County Judge Donna Jo McDaniel had little discretion on Tuesday in sentencing 18-year-old Isaiah Hereford and 20-year-old DeAnthony Kirk because both were convicted of crimes carrying a mandatory life sentence in August.

Hereford was convicted of three counts of first-degree, or premeditated, murder while Kirk was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder — a killing committed during a felony — in the June 2010 robbery at the Crawford Village housing complex in McKeesport.

The gunmen pretended they wanted to buy cigarettes to gain entrance before killing three people attending an 18-year-old friend’s birthday party.

Both defendants claimed to have alibis, but one witness testified seeing Hereford and another witness said Kirk admitted being there.