A Philadelphia man will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing two teenagers outside of a Reading convenience store.
Nyjee Jefferson, 30, was sentenced Friday by Berks County Judge Thomas Parisi to life without the possibility of parole, followed by 25 to 50 years in prison.
A Berks jury found Jefferson guilty of first-degree and third-degree murder, carrying a firearm without a license and possessing an instrument of crime following a three-day trial in December.
Jefferson was convicted in the Feb. 20, 2022, killings of 18-year-old Jose Ventura-Jimenez and 17-year-old Alejandro Drullar.
According to police:
Jefferson got into an altercation with the teens inside a convenience store at Schuylkill Avenue and West Greenwich Street about 7 a.m.
The fight spilled into the parking lot, where Jefferson shot both teens.
Ventura was shot seven times, and Drullar was shot once.
About two hours after the killings Jefferson was captured by security footage checking himself into a Philadelphia hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound. He was arrested a few days later.
The killings came amid a rash of violence in the city during which seven people were killed in a five-week span.