Memphis Officer Sean Bolton was killed in 2015. Photo: Memphis PD
Tremaine Wilbourn was sentenced by a jury Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of Memphis, TN, Officer Sean Bolton.
The verdict was read by Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee after Wilbourn had been expelled from the courtroom following an outburst over closing arguments at the end of his sentencing hearing Tuesday morning. He will be forced to return to court Dec. 17 for sentencing on carjacking and weapons charges, Coffee said.
The jury was given the option of life in prison, life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. It took them nearly two hours to reach a verdict on Wilbourn's sentencing, reports the Commercial Appeal.
The same jury found Wilbourn guilty of first-degree murder, carjacking and weapons charges in the August 2015 killing of Officer Sean Bolton in Memphis.
Police said Bolton interrupted a drug deal in a car Wilbourn occupied in a residential neighborhood, reports the Associated Press. Wilbourn got out of the vehicle, and he and Bolton got into a physical struggle. Wilbourn took out a gun and shot Bolton, police said.
A witness called police through the officer's radio. An autopsy report shows Officer Bolton, 33, was shot eight times.
Wilbourn already has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on weapons charges related to Bolton's killing.
