By Associated Press - Saturday, December 14, 2019

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A 19-year-old Connecticut man has been sentenced to 52 years in prison after being convicted of murder in a shooting death near a trail.

A judge handed down the sentence Thursday to James Graham of New Haven, for the killing of 18-year-old Leeandre Benton near the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in Hamden in 2017, the New Haven Register reported.

Defense attorney Thomas Farver said Benton’s death was a tragedy for the community, but asked that the judge consider Graham’s young age when deciding his sentence.

Graham faced up to 85 years in prison.

A jury found Graham guilty of murder and other charges in October.

Graham shot Benton in an attempted robbery with two other men, prosecutors said.

Graham argued in his testimony and again before sentencing that he and the others were with Benton when a masked man in a track suit appeared suddenly from the woods and shot Benton.

Superior Court Judge Elpedio Vitale said Graham’s account was “demonstrably preposterous” and that surveillance footage shows Graham in the area at the time of the shooting and no masked man in a track suit.

Graham said Thursday that his trial hadn’t been fair and that his conviction was the result of “hearsay witnesses” who “got their facts from the Hamden Police Department.”

Graham told Benton’s family: “Sorry for your loss. I’m not the one.”

The other two defendants, Robert Moye and Brennen Coleman, both 23 and of New Haven, are in custody awaiting trial.

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