Thomas Byrd.
It’s unfortunate that this lad met a premature end.
From the look of him, he’d have made a fine soldier in the coming race war.
Another trial in the 2012 slaying of a former high school wrestler has ended with a conviction and life-in-prison sentence.
A Palm Beach County jury on Friday returned a guilty verdict for Thomas Byrd in the brutal murder and robbery of 22-year-old Dustin Deckard, a New Jersey state high school wrestling champion.
It was a retrial for Byrd, 29, in the Delray Beach killing.
Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath imposed an automatic life term for the killing, plus 50 years for the robbery, court records show.
Byrd, formerly of Boynton Beach, was previously convicted and sentenced to life in 2015, but prevailed on an appeal concerning the testimony of an alibi witness.
Two accomplices — Byrd’s half-brother, Kevin Sammiel, and accused getaway driver Sherman Colson — are serving life terms for Deckard’s death. Their appeals were unsuccessful.
Prosecutors said Deckard was killed for his iPhone and pocket change at 12:38 a.m. Aug. 30, 2012, as he walked along the 1100 block of Southwest 10th Street.
Dustin Deckard.