MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Robert Hernandez, Jr. will spend the rest of his life behind bars with no chance of parole.
Monongalia County Circuit Court Judge Susan Tucker sentenced the Maryland man Monday afternoon.
In January, Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2014 stabbing death of West Virginia University freshman Devante’ Waites.
It took the 12-member panel two hours of deliberation to find Hernandez guilty. It took even less time for them to agree Hernandez should not receive mercy at his sentencing.
Waites, 19, of Fairmont, was in a crowded Morgantown bar last August when a fight broke out. He was stabbed and later died, and surveillance video led police to Hernandez of Cumberland, Md.
Hernandez had been convicted on drug charges several years prior to the Morgantown murder investigation.
In July 2005, Hernandez pleaded guilty to distribution of crack cocaine charges.
He was on supervised release at the time of the Morgantown murder and was not supposed to leave the state of Maryland.