FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) — The man convicted of shooting and killing an 18-year-old on New Year’s Day in 2019 was recommended for life in prison on Tuesday.
A jury made the recommendation, which was confirmed to CBS12 by St. Lucie County Judge Robert Meadows, in the case of Amir Tafari Muhammad.
Muhammad was convicted of the 2019 crime on Friday, February 27. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
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Previous reporting says that on New Year’s Day in 2019, Jamal Booker, 18, was shot and killed in retaliation for a drug deal that turned into a robbery. Police found Booker with multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot at the Pine Creek Village apartment complex.
According to the Fort Pierce Police Department, Booker believed he was meeting someone through the “Plenty of Fish” app. Instead, investigators said he was being set up to be ambushed and killed after Muhammad’s girlfriend, Megan Nichole Craig, alleged that Booker had robbed her of half a pound of marijuana before New Year’s Eve.
Police said Muhammad pulled the trigger using a pink gun, and Craig confessed to setting up the hit on Booker and luring him to the apartment complex.
Two other people were arrested, who authorities identified as Dewayne Fisher and Anastasia Benincasa.