Teen resentenced in slaying of parents

Associated Press

BEAVER, Pa.

A man convicted as a teenager of hiring a pair of classmates to kill his parents in their western Pennsylvania home more than two decades ago could have a chance of parole beginning at age 76 after resentencing.

Brian Samuel, 39, was sentenced in 1997 to two consecutive life terms without possibility of parole, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring mandatory life-without-parole terms for teenagers required him to be resentenced.

The Beaver County Times reports that a judge last week sentenced Samuel to 30-year-to-life terms to be served consecutively, or an aggregate sentence of 60 years to life.

Samuel was convicted of first-degree murder in the April 1996 deaths of William and Tresa Samuel in Aliquippa, about 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Prosecutors said Samuel was 16 when he hired 16-year-old Trazis Durham and 18-year-old Pete Schoonover to kill his parents in exchange for $12,000 each because the victims were going to cut him off from his generous grandparents.

All three defendants were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life terms after jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on whether they should be executed. Durham also awaits resentencing.

Defense attorneys said in a sentencing memorandum that Samuel takes full responsibility and wishes to express remorse to his remaining relatives and the community. They cited a troubled home life and said he had earned a GED certificate in prison and recently completed classes for a barber license to be a productive member of society.

District Attorney David Lozier argued for a longer term, citing detailed plans Samuel made for his parents’ murders and his participation in the crime. He said the defendant “showed no remorse.”