PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island man has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years in prison for two burglaries at the same home and the fatal shooting of the resident during the second break-in, authorities say.
Juan Gibson, 49, of Providence, was sentenced by a judge Wednesday after being convicted in January of murder and several other charges in the 2013 death of Jeffrey Lebrun, 41, according to a statement from the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha.
Gibson and an accomplice broke into Lebrun’s Pawtucket home in May 2013 armed with a knife, authorities said. Lebrun fought off both intruders but sustained several cuts from the knife during the struggle, according to the attorney general.
Lebrun told police after the first break-in that he believed he was being targeted because he used and sold medical marijuana.
The same two men broke into Lebrun’s home again about two months later, and during another struggle, shot and killed him, the attorney general’s office said.
Gibson, who wasn’t arrested until March 2019, was implicated thanks to the persistence of Pawtucket police investigators and advances in DNA technology, Neronha said in a statement.
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