Crime & Safety

DeKalb Craigslist Killers Get Life

The two killers used a bogus iPhone ad posted on the virtual classifieds board to lure a 63-year-old man into a robbery, which turned fatal.

Two men who were convicted of killing a man during the course of a robbery in DeKalb County in 2013 were sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, WSB-TV reports.

Malik Rice and Contevious Stepp-McCommons used Craigslist, a popular online classifieds board, to trick 63-year-old Clarence Gardenhire into believing he was meeting the men at an abandoned house in southeast Atlanta to buy an iPhone. Instead, Rice and Stepp-McCommons tried to rob Gardenhire of the money he brought to buy the nonexistent iPhone, and fatally shot him in the process.

WSB-TV says that Rice and Stepp-McCommons were convicted of elony murder, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, criminal attempt to commit a felony and two counts of aggravated assault. Rice was sentenced to life without parole plus an additional 55 years, while Stepp-McCommons was sentenced to life without parole plus an additional 35 years.

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