The Michigan appeals court has upheld no-parole sentences for two young men who were teens when a customer was abducted at a suburban Detroit sandwich shop and killed in 2009.
The decisions released Friday are significant. Ihab Masalmani and Robert Taylor were given an opportunity for a shorter sentence as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. But a Macomb County judge — and now the appeals court — said no-parole punishments still fit the crime.
Matt Landry of Chesterfield Township was abducted from a sub shop parking lot in Eastpointe in 2009. Evidence showed Masalmani and Taylor withdrew money from his bank account, bought drugs and shot Landry in the head at an abandoned Detroit house.
Taylor, 23, was 16 at the time. Masalmani, now 24, was 17.
