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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The latest on the sentencing of a man convicted of beating two homeless men to death (all times local):
3:10 p.m.
An Albuquerque man convicted of beating two homeless men to death with cinder blocks and other objects has been sentenced to 67 ½ years in prison, the maximum allowed.
A jury found 20-year-old Alex Rios guilty last year of more than a dozen felony counts in the 2014 killings of Alison Gorman and Kee Thompson.
He was sentenced Friday after the victims' families choked back tears and described the voids left in their lives by what they called a senseless and vicious crime.
Police say Rios and two of his friends began beating the men as they slept in a vacant lot.
Rios apologized to the victims' families and asked the judge for mercy.
His attorney, Daniel Salazar, had told the judge that Rios should face no more than 42 years in prison.
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2:50 p.m.
A 20-year-old man convicted of beating two homeless men to death with cinder blocks and other objects two years ago in Albuquerque is apologizing to the victims' families.
Alex Rios told the relatives of Alison Gorman and Kee Thompson during his sentencing Friday that he was sorry and knows the pain they're going through.
Rios asked the judge for mercy, saying he's not guilty of murdering the men but should have called police or yelled for the other defendants to stop. Prosecutors say he and two friends attacked the men as they slept on a mattress in a vacant lot.
The judge suggested Rios was minimizing his involvement in the beatings.
Family members choked back tears as they asked the judge to sentence Rios to the maximum allowed.
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2:15 p.m.
A sentencing hearing is under way for a 20-year-old man convicted of beating two homeless men to death with cinder blocks and other objects in 2014.
Alex Rios was convicted of more than a dozen charges stemming from the killings of Alison Gorman and Kee Thompson.
Rios' attorney, Daniel Salazar, told the judge Friday afternoon that his client was convicting of being an accessory in the beatings and should face no more than 42 years in prison.
Prosecutors say they're seeking the harshest possible sentence for Rios, who was 18 when he and two friends attacked the men as they slept on a mattress in a vacant lot in Albuquerque.
The others, both juveniles at the time, also were charged with killing the men, who family members say had come to Albuquerque from the Navajo Nation to find work.
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