LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — One of the four men convicted of killing a Lancaster County man in his front yard in 2007 will get no relief from prison sentence he's serving, a state appellate court ruled Wednesday.
Emru Kebede, 29, was 16 years old when he and three other men were convicted of murdering Ray Diener on his front porch during a random robbery on May 2, 2007, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office.
A Lancaster County jury found Kebede guilty of second-degree murder, and he was originally sentenced to life in prison without parole.
He was re-sentenced to 30 years to life in 2018, after a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision found the automatic imposition of life-without-parole sentences against juveniles convicted of first- or second-degree murder to be unconstitutional.
Kebede is seeking a new trial, and is challenging the legality of his sentence, according to the DA.
In the appeal of his conviction and sentence, Kebede argued that the sentence was "illegal," according to the Lancaster County DA's Office. He also claimed that the jury should have been allowed to consider an involuntary manslaughter charge instead for his role in Diener's murder.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Superior Court denied Kebede's requests, which means his parole hearing cannot happen before 2037.
According to testimony at his trial, Kebede and his accomplices selected Diener at random after seeing him through an illuminated window at his West Donegal Township home. They went to Diener's front door and lured him outside by asking to use his cellphone.
Diener was shot three times by one of Kebede's co-conspirators, Abraham Sanchez, who later received a death sentence following his conviction for first-degree murder.
Kebede was within three feet of Diener during the confrontation, the Lancaster County DA said. Kebede and the other defendants all wore gloves for the crime, but no masks -- indicating they did not want to leave fingerprints or a living witness, prosecutors said.
The two other conspirators, Robert M. Baker and Lorenzo Schrijver, both pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy. Schrijver was sentenced to a 30 to 60-year prison term, while Baker received a 25 to 50-year sentence.
