Tampa Escorts: Slightly different verdict has same result in retrial
July 25, 2009Slightly different verdict has same result in retrial
By Curtis Krueger, Times Staff Writer In Print: Saturday, July 25, 2009
LARGO — In his second trial for killing a 42-year-old Pinellas Park prostitute, Leo Richard Berube was convicted of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder.
The distinction may not make a difference.
Berube was serving a mandatory life sentence after his 2006 first-degree murder conviction for killing Ann Griffith, but earlier this year an appeals court said he should get a new trial.
He was convicted Friday of second-degree murder, which does not always carry a life sentence. But because Berube committed the 2003 murder less than three years after getting out of prison, he falls under a law that requires he be sentenced to life in prison again, assistant state attorney Frank Piazza said.
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