Man gets 27 years in Webster Groves teacher killing

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 | 10:54 a.m. CST
BY The Associated Press

CLAYTON — A man who admitted killing a St. Louis County teacher in the parking lot of a shopping mall was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Derrick Luster was sentenced Wednesday, two days after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He was originally charged with first-degree murder. The plea deal was reached as his trial was to begin.

Luster apologized in court to the family of 57-year-old Joyce Belrose, who was killed in August 2000 in the parking lot of West County Center.

Belrose was a fourth-grade teacher from Webster Groves.

Police say evidence from the scene, and from under the victim's fingernails, matched a DNA sample provided by Luster. He was arrested in February 2007 in Texas.

 

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