A New Jersey gangbanger has been sentenced to life in prison for shooting dead a Nigerian man who he saw urinating in his street.
Bloods member Christopher Poole “executed” photographer Rasheed “O.J.” Olabode, 27, by shooting him in the heart as he begged for mercy.
Christopher had seen Olabode easing himself behind a car in Newark in April 2018 so he confronted him.
Surveillance video showed Olabode begging to be spared, but Poole “executed” him anyway, prosecutors said.
“The only mistake that appears the victim made was going to relieve himself in front of the wrong person,” prosecutor Jason Goldberg told Superior Court of Essex County, NJ.com said.
“And that simple, simple act — something that every single person does, every single day — was enough in the eyes of Mr. Poole to execute a man, shoot him in the heart as he prayed and tried talking his way out of it.”
Poole — who has a tattoo on his throat of a hand giving the middle finger — has a lengthy rap sheet starting from when he was just 15, the site says.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Wigler noted his “utter lack of remorse” for the execution in front of two of the victim’s friends.
Wigler, who has served as a Superior Court judge for a decade, said: “This was certainly one of the most — if not the most — senseless murder cases that I have presided over and been involved with.”
On Tuesday, February 4, Poole was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder. He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for one weapons offence that will run concurrently.
He must serve at least 63 years before he is eligible for parole under the state’s No Early Release Act.
One of Poole’s two sisters cried and fled the court when he was sentenced.
“I know his heart. I know that this isn’t the person that he wanted to become,” she told NJ.com.
Olabode was originally from Nigeria. His family could not afford to make it to New Jersey for the sentencing, the court heard.