The 15-year-old Gwinnett County boy convicted of killing Papa John’s pizza driver Shane Varnadore may be back out on the street by age 45.
Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Randy Rich on Thursday sentenced Reginald Lofton to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Meaning, if the teen behaves himself in prison, he could be released on parole in 30 years.
“I wish I could give you more time than I can, because I think you’re a coldblooded killer. I hope you never get out of jail,” Judge Rich told Lofton.
Varnadore, 28, was shot and killed on March 1 while delivering pizza to the Wesley Herrington Apartment complex in Lawrenceville, GA.
Lofton and an accomplice, Jermaine Young, 21, were soon arrested and charged with murder and luring Varnadore to the complex with the intentions of robbing him.
Young, who has yet to be tried, was the trigger man. Lofton was only 14 at the time of the shooting. But the prosecutor tried Lofton as an adult because evidence shows he provided the cellphone to Young to lure Varnadore to the complex.
Then, after watching the shooting, the teenager calmly removed the pizza from an insulated carrier and returned to his sister’s apartment, where he lived after his mother died in Chicago.
Lofton’s sister, Porsha Porter, was grateful that the judge gave her brother a chance at parole.
“Instead of throwing him under the jail cell, help him, counsel him, something,” Porter pleaded in court.
Lofton spoke to the family of his victim after his sentencing.
“I just want to say that I’m sorry for your loss but, um, I did not, um, kill your son… and I wasn’t the shooter. That’s it judge.”
