PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) -
A Boston man convicted Tuesday of killing a retired stockbroker during a botched robbery four years ago has been sentenced to life in prison.
James Ferguson was found guilty by a Plymouth Superior Court jury of murder and other charges in the September 2015 killing of 45-year-old Robert McKenna in his Marshfield home.
Ferguson was the second of three suspects convicted.
The men broke into the home to steal the victim’s collection of guns, African art and homegrown marijuana, prosecutors said. McKenna was beaten on the head with a frying pan and pushed through a window, severing an artery in his arm. He was left to die, prosecutors said.
“Words cannot describe what a huge presence Rob was in our family,” McKenna’s sister, Elizabeth Ainslie, said in victim impact statement. “They took away a piece of all our hearts.”
“We take some solace in the fact that the jury found that this was not premeditated by Mr. Ferguson,” defense attorney Joseph Krowski said.
Mark O’Brien, of Boston, was found guilty of murder and other charges in McKenna’s killing earlier this year. The third suspect faces trial next year.
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