Crime & Safety

Saint Louis Man Sentenced To Life In Prison For 2015 Drug Murders

"I hope all of you have a very miserable life as long as you live," said the sister of one victim and daughter of another.

ST. LOUIS, MO β€” Demante Syms, 26, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for his involvement in three murders that took place back in 2015, the Post-Dispatch reports.

Syms, along with Jacobi Temple and Samuel Spires, were convicted of charges ranging from conspiracy to witness tampering after taking plea deals.

The men were seeking money for drugs, prosecutors said, when they shot 47-year-old James Lacy, 23-year-old Paige Schaefer, and her mother, 54-year-old Tammie Thurmond in the city's Dutchtown neighborhood in March 2015.

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Temple is expected to be sentenced to 50 years in prison after taking a plea deal. Spires was sentenced to 20 years in May after pleading guilty to conspiracy and a gun charge.

"I'm not sure how someone could have such little regard for a human life," Tiffany Thurmond, the sister of one victim and daughter of another, said in court. "I hope all of you have a very miserable life as long as you live."

Syms apologized and promised to pray for his victims to find peace.

Read more from the Post-Dispatch.

Image via Shutterstock


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