May 18, 2013
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A 55-year-old Blackstone man who killed another man in the parking lot of a Richmond veterans' hospital has been sentenced to life in prison.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/Xjgn5x) reports that Cornelius I. Hayes received the sentence Friday after U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson called the slaying of James Lee a calculated, remorseless act.
Hayes admitted that he fatally shot the 58-year-old Blackstone man in the parking lot of the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Medical Center last Feb. 22.
Hayes was originally charged with first-degree murder and four other counts. The government decided not to seek the death penalty and agreed to drop four charges in exchange for a plea of guilty to using a firearm in a violent crime causing the death of another person.
