Man sentenced to life for shooting dead two men who gave him wrong directions

Christian Sweeten, 31, shot two men dead in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2008

Initially claimed self-defence - though the men had been shot in the back

Two consecutive 20-year jail terms were upheld last week by parole board



Life sentence: Christian Sweeten, 31, was sentenced to two consecutive 20-year jail terms

A man who murdered two people because he believed they had given him wrong directions has been jailed for life.

Christian Sweeten, 31, shot dead Michael Ehlert, 20, and Anthony Gaines, 42, in September 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah, after they gave him directions and he ended up back where he started.

Both men were unarmed and had been shot in the back with a .22-caliber rifle.

Sweeten turned himself into police hours after the incident and initially claimed he had acted in self-defence.

Michael Sikora, defending, said his client's blood was three times the legal limit when the killing took place.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty, but Sweeten took a plea deal and his two consecutive 20-year jail terms were upheld last week by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

According to the newspaper, during the 2011 trial Sweeten said: ‘I messed up. I'm absolutely ashamed of myself.

‘I want to acknowledge the pain and anguish I have caused. I deprived a mother of her son, a sister her brother, and a son his father.’

Tragic: The murder of Michael Ehlert, 20, and Anthony Gaines took place in 2008 in Salt Lake City (file picture) Extreme reaction: The killings took place in the Utah city in September 2008 after an argument over directions

Mr Ehlert was survived by a four-year-old son and during the hearing his sister Nicole told Sweeten: ‘I cannot forgive you - maybe one day, but not today.'



She added: 'Michael was everything to our family and friends. It has been very hard living day by day without him by our side.'

The Salt Lake City Tribune went on to quote trial judge Robert Stott as saying: ‘I don't think any punishment we can give is commensurate to a murder, or in this case two murders.’