Nigerian businessman sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole in the US for murder

NIGERIAN businessman Ezeoma Chigozie Obioha has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Los Angeles after being found guilty of the murder of a woman in a restaurant in 2015.

After an emotional court hearing on Monday, the 32-year-old was sentenced for the murder of a woman who was blasted in the face with a shotgun as she walked into a restaurant in Hollywood with her boyfriend. While the sentencing was on, Mr Obioha sat showing no emotion as Carrie Jean Melvin’s relatives told the court that her killing had upended their lives.

Ms Melvin's father Bernard, said: “I have tried to answer my family’s questions but how do you explain a completely senseless act? We cry every day. I had to hear and see things in the trial that no parent should have to hear.”

Her older brother, Ryan, said Mr Obioha’s insistence that he is innocent compounded the family’s grief. He said he experiences recurring nightmares about his sister’s murder.

In December 2016, after the conviction, Mr Obioha’s attorney, Jamon Hicks, said he was disappointed with the verdict, adding that he believed the defence had done a good job of showing that there was reasonable doubt in the case. Obioha’s sister, Nkechi Howell, said she was devastated but not surprised by the verdict.

“I have to be hopeful that the truth will come out and justice will be served. I know my brother didn’t do this and our whole family knows that he’s innocent. Someone killed Carrie Melvin but it wasn’t my brother and we have known that the entirety of this trial,” Ms Howell added.