DHAKA: The killer of Bangladeshi student Moin Hassan, a graduate student of University of Bridgeport in US from Bangladesh, was awarded 37 years imprisonment on Friday morning.
"I sentence you to 37 years in prison."
The words had just gotten out of the judge`s mouth when all hell broke loose in the Main Street courtroom.
Never mind that Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin`s sentence for 22-year-old Courtney Burden -- who shot a University of Bridgeport student to death during a robbery -- was three years less than the prosecutor asked for.
From all around the spectator section of the large courtroom came a crescendo of swearing, targeting the judge, the prosecutor and even Burden`s own lawyer.
Burden, who had his own choice use of the language, loudly proclaimed, "Hey it`s OK, I got this."
Judicial marshals quickly escorted Burden`s friends and family outside the courtroom where one unidentified man took a parting shot at no one in particular, tossing a tube of lip balm down the hallway.
Moin Hassan, 22, had come to this country from his native Bangladesh to live the American dream of getting a good education and ended up becoming number 18 on the city`s homicide list for 2012.
Senior Assistant State`s Attorney Cornelius Kelly said Burden, an escapee from a halfway house where he was serving the remainder of a robbery sentence, confessed to killing Hassan while attempting to rob Layla`s Market on Fairfield Avenue on Sept. 18, 2012.
Burden, who later pleaded guilty to felony murder for the crime, told police he and another unidentified man had gone into Layla`s Market to do a "mission."
An employee of the market was in the rear cooler section of the store when he heard a gunshot, according to police.
He came out to the front of the store to see Hassan lying on the floor in front of the counter bleeding from a gunshot wound in his abdomen. A man wearing a hooded sweatshirt was running out the door, police said. Hassan died a short time later at Bridgeport Hospital.
Source: ctpost.com
BDST: 1128 HRS, JAN 18, 2014
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