Ihab Maslamani (Detroit News file)
Eastpointe — A man convicted of felony murder as a teenager in the abduction and death of a Chesterfield Township man has had his mandatory no-parole term overturned.
The state Court of Appeals, in an opinion released Wednesday, said Ihab Maslamani will get a new sentencing hearing because the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down mandatory no-parole sentences for murders committed by teenagers 17 and under.
Maslamani was convicted in 2010 on 18 counts including felony murder in an August 2009 crime spree of armed bank robbery and carjackings that ended with the kidnapping and killing of Matthew Landry, 21. Maslamani of Flint was 17 at the time. Co-defendant, Robert Taylor, was 16.
The appeals court affirmed Maslamani's convictions.
When Maslamani, now 21, returns to Macomb County Circuit Court, sentencing Judge Diane Druzinski can issue the same penalty. But she now has the option of imposing a term of years or life with or without the possibility of parole.
Macomb Prosecutor Eric Smith said the original sentence was "justified," and his office will urge Druzinski to reinstate it.
No date has been set for Maslamani's resentencing hearing. Maslamani's appellate attorney, Valerie Newman, said she will challenge the appeals court decision to uphold the convictions.
Prosecutors said Maslamani beat and shoved Landry into Landry's Honda Accord in the parking lot of an Eastpointe Quiznos on Aug. 9, 2009, while Taylor acted as a lookout. Landry's body was found several days later in a burned-out house in Detroit.
Taylor's appeal is pending.
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