Ohio man sentenced to life in prison for 4 slayings

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A 23-year-old northeast Ohio man has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 35 years in the April 2013 drug-related slayings of four people at an Akron townhome.

Deshanon Haywood was sentenced on Friday in Akron. He had faced the possibility of the death penalty but the jury that convicted him recommended life instead. He was convicted of four counts of aggravated murder on June 19.

It was his second trial. Convictions from last fall were vacated because of concerns about prosecutorial misconduct.

A second defendant, 23-year-old Derrick Brantley, was sentenced to life in prison last summer for the slayings. Haywood testified at his latest trial that Brantley shot two men and two women ranging in age from 19 to 24.